


The Masked Stripper - A Modern Cinderella Story

by GrrrrsRandomness



Category: Brittana - Fandom, Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Stripper/Exotic Dancer, Attempted Murder, Blood, Blood and Gore, Bullying, Cinderella Elements, Closet Santana, Dancer Brittany S. Pierce, F/F, Gay Santana Lopez, Halloween, Happy Ending, Kid Santana Lopez/Kid Brittany S. Pierce, LGBT, Lesbian, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Minor Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray, Murder, No Smut, Quinn Fabray & Santana Lopez Friendship, Scary, Serial Killers, Smart Brittany S. Pierce, This doesn't contain smut at all, modern fairytale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2020-11-27 10:53:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 42,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20947151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrrrrsRandomness/pseuds/GrrrrsRandomness
Summary: Toxic is a stripper at Sin City in Lima. Santana develops feelings for her. Will she be able to find out Toxic's true identity or will her Cinderella keep hiding?





	1. Prologue

* * *

An older man with salt and pepper hair adjusted his gold-framed glasses. He takes a moment to allow his young patient to make herself comfortable in his leather couch. He quickly reaches into his but blazer and retrieves his phone to put it in silent mode. He takes his pen and clicks the top end so that it is ready to use. He holds it in his holder hands that rest on his notepad.

With a deep exhale, the young blonde woman relaxes.

"Today is your last session. I am always a call away if you ever need to talk. You have always been a strong young woman but after all these months, you've managed to become stronger. Today, you can just speak your mind. I'll listen."

Several moments go by. For the past months, the woman has come to this office. Once a week. She would sit on this couch and he would ask her questions or say something thought-provoking. Each time she cried. As time went on, each visit got easier. Old wounds healed. Knowing that her sister was also doing well in regards to her therapy sessions, made her healing process that much better. The love and support she got from her soulmate gave her new memories to replace all her darkest ones.

"For so long I thought that something was wrong with me. That I couldn't be loved because I didn't deserve it." She confesses quietly. "I have learned that it wasn't my fault. What she did to me, what she forced my sister to do, that wasn't my fault. That's the hardest part for me to understand. Why did she do it? Why?"

"In evolutionary psychology, it's referred to a theory called the Cinderella Effect."

"Named after the movie?"

"It is named after the movie." He confirms. "It refers to the abuse children experience at the hands of their stepparents. In households where there is an abusive stepparent, the genetic children are usually spared. Many refer to it as the attachment theory. Because the stepparent hasn't known the child since birth, that parent-child bond never forms. I can't say for sure this is what it is. I didn't treat the woman or speak to her directly but this is the only explanation I can offer you. I hope that that helps you. "

Brittany smiles as she finds the silver lining. "Cinderella has a happy ending."

The older man smiles. "She does. She marries the prince and they live happily ever after."

She bites her lip and with a mischievous twinkle in her eye she says. "In my case, Cinderella is going to marry a princess."

"I am sure you will also live happily ever after." he says with a smile. 


	2. ToxicBlonde

Brittany was 3 when it happened. She remembers her mom driving home before she fell asleep. The next thing she knew, the car was upside down and her mother was taking a nap. She holds her father's hand tightly in fear. It was a scary memory. She vividly remembers seeing her father cry. The little girl had never seen her father cry. So broken. His voice cracked as he told her that she'd see her mother again someday. Brittany was too young to know what that meant but the tears on her father's face meant something sad happened.

It took her some time to realize that her mother wasn't coming back. She'd died. Her father had lost his wife and Brittany had lost her mother. She was only 27 years old. Her father never let Brittany forget her. He'd remind her sometimes what she was like. After all, Brittany had been too young to remember her. She had a few pictures to remember her by. If it weren't for that or the stories her father told her, she would have forgotten about her.

While she could barely remember the woman who raised her shortly, Brittany noticed for years that her father had a hard time doing so. She recalls remembering her father cry many times as he looked at photos, see a video of her, or on the anniversary of her death. He'd been struggling for years so when her father met a woman Judy Fabray who made her father smile, she thought it was the best news ever.

At 7, when her father proposed to Judy, Brittany was excited. Her father wouldn't be so sad, and because Judy had a daughter, she'd have a stepsister too. Quinn was pretty and blonde like her. They'd gotten along so well. They became the best of friends. Brittany's life couldn't get any better. Her father was finally happy again, she had a stepmother, and a step sister and her father worked hard to make sure she had everything they needed.

She was 10 when her father died suddenly. His heart stopped working is the explanation she was given. She remembered briefly a moment where her loving father explained that heart attacks were caused by people loving too much. Maybe her father loved his new family too much. Whatever the reason, her father was in a much better place with her real mother. He was up in heaven and she was stuck in hell.

The death of her father caused her stepmother and sister to treat the innocent Brittany differently. She'd been forced to do chores in the house like washing the cars, do the laundry, and cook dinner. Things that Judy said would make her a responsible and functioning adult. Brittany knew that was true but she found it extremely unfair that the other blondes in the house got to enjoy relaxing while she was hard at work. Gone were all the dancing lessons her father would send her to, to ensure that she could get into a Juilliard like her mother. Both the blondes would tell her she was a terrible dancer and too ugly to ever be a successful dancer. Gone were all the friends she had. Quinn got everyone to make fun of her for no reason. She had many friends thanks to all the awesome parties her father threw her growing up. She's lucky to still have Sam as her best friend. Gone was the confidence she had in participating in class when she got the right answer. The students made fun of her for being so stupid even though the teachers would say she had the right answer every time. It got so bad that Brittany decided to play the dumb blonde.

When she was 16, she'd bravely(or stupidly depending on who you asked) told her stepmother that she wanted to go to Juilliard. She'd been laughed at hysterically.

"You're going to have to get a job to be able to afford to go there. We don't have that kind of money. If you're interested, there's a position opening up at the strip club. It's perfect, you could practice your dancing and earn money at the same time. You start next week on Monday after school and after you do your chores. From 5 to 8. 5-12 on the weekends. I'll even let you borrow some money to buy a costume."

Brittany couldn't believe her ears. First, she was sure that her father had a lot of money. She had no idea how much exactly but she was spoiled. They had a big house, nice cars, she and her father would vacation a lot, and her father bought her everything no questions asked. Not only that, but her father also had many businesses. He'd purchased the building that he'd told Brittany he'd turn into a dance studio someday. When he passed unexpectedly, her mother took her would-be dance studio and turned it into a stop club.

Second, what kind of woman would even suggest that she work in such a place. When Judy gave her a schedule, and money to buy a costume, she knew it was not up for discussion. She'd have to find time to study and do homework on her own. She was mad but used her anger as a dedication to bettering her situation by keeping her grades up and working hard to earn a scholarship so she could get far away from this crazy-ass woman and get the hell out of this fucking house.

Brittany's iPhone lights up. She looks at her notification and smiles as she reads that DiablaCaliente has sent her a message. As usual, her heart skips a beat. Brittany has always been a smart girl. She created an Instagram profile to boost her popularity with gentlemen and women who frequented strip clubs. If she had a following, more people would want to see her, which meant she'd make more money, which meant she could pay for her tuition. Under her profile, she had posted many pictures and videos of her. There were pictures of her gracefully hanging from a stripper pole, nudes of her breast, her in her costumes. Sometimes of her lips or her mask. All her pictures look professional. Some were even artistic. Truth be told, some were downright beautiful. She'd gotten some followers and that, in turn, did get people to come to watch her more. On the positive side, Brittany was making good money, she'd made one thousand fifty-seven dollars her first week.

On the negative side, she'd gotten a few unwanted private messages. It has gotten so bad that she deleted all of them without even reading them. Luckily( and tot his day, Brittany doesn't know why she decided to open it), she'd gotten a message that was different from the other ones. Instead of several pictures of male genitalia and/or a message to show her a good night, she'd gotten a message from a mysterious DiablaCaliente. It was a simple message asking telling her to sleep well and that she was beautiful.

Ever since that message, she and her mysterious DiablaCaliente had messages non stop. It was silly really. She had no idea when their simple messaging turned into something more than that but it did. Brittany liked the idea of being able to talk to someone about her dreams and her hopes and everything that she found so interesting. Brittany knew Diabla felt the same way. She'd share her dreams with the blonde and even told her how much she hated how much pressure she was under from her parents to be something and someone she wasn't. After confessing to Brittany that she was a closet lesbian, she was honest with Brittany about how she felt, Brittany, who's feelings for the mysterious girl had grown so strong, had confessed hers as well. They both knew it was crazy and everyone would assume the same but the mystery of not knowing what the other looked like was an element that aided in them being completely honest with each other.

Brittany opens the message.

**DiablaCaliente:** Babe, guess where a best friend managed to get my friends into?

**ToxicBlonde:** Breadstix?

**DiablaCaliente:** Somewhere even better?

**ToxicBlonde:** Better than Breadstix? Who are you and what have you done with my diabla? You swear there's nothing better than a Breadstix all the time.

**DiablaCaliente:** We're going to Sin City! I am finally going to meet you in person. Took us long enough but I want to meet you. I'm a little excited, to be honest.

Brittany feels the butterflies in her stomach dance. They weren't official but this was how they were. Both wanted to know the real identity of the other person but neither every being brave to give each other their names. They both knew they lived in the same city because of where Brittany worked. Still, their feelings for each other were strong despite not knowing who exactly the other person was. They both knew that they were being honest about themselves. There was no doubt about that.

Part of Brittany's is scared of meeting Diabla and possibly having them both realize their "love is blind" thing they believe in is complete bullshit. She's scared Diabla will find out that she's the biggest loser and realize she's not that special and leave her.

Brittany couldn't bear the thought.

* * *

Santana can hardly contain her excitement as she walks into the club with her boyfriend Noah, her best friend Quinn, and Quinn's boyfriend, Mike. She's quick to lose her friends saying she's gonna go to the bathroom. She knows Quinn won't follow her because she's making out with Mike. Noah's checking out all the girls. He'll be too distracted to question her disappearance once she's gone. Perfect. She's on a mission to find the girl she's in love with for a while now. She looks around the club looking for the masked stripper that's been haunting her dreams. It takes a few minutes but when everyone turns to face the stage and cheer loudly, she knows she's found her.

"She'll take your heart piece by piece. Consume your every dream. Be careful, ladies and gentlemen, she's Toxic." Santana hears a highly pitched feminine voice. She's surprised to see a very flamboyant man. She's pretty sure she's never seen anyone in Lima be so openly gay. She admires him thinking that he sure has some balls to be looking the way he does.

The blinds open and her heart stops. Brown eyes follow the tall masked woman as she walks down the runway. Her dark angel wings and lingerie make her look like she's the Victoria Secret model.

Santana still can't believe she's been talking to this goddess. She's pretty sure she could've gotten anyone but she messaged Santana back. Santana watches the show with eyes taking in every bit of skin exposed. She memorizes the moves the blonde makes as she makes her way around the stage. Her jaw opens and probably drooling as the dancer seems to defy gravity on the gold bar connected to the stage floor and ceiling. She swallows hard as long slender fingers teasing remove one bra strap at a time before she reaches back and unhooks her bra letting it hand from one finger and twirling it before carelessly throwing it to the crowd. She dances some more. Her beautiful breast captivating everyone's eyes. And she's just so damn sexy Santanas pretty sure she's wet as fuck.

Santana blinks her eyes to calm her entire body because she's sure she's never been this turned on and she hasn't even been touched. The moment to herself allows her to cool down but now she can see all the dollars in the air and floor. She wants to punch all of them for looking at her blonde like she's some kind of meat. And okay she was doing that too but she's pretty sure none of them know how beautiful of a soul this woman has. Though her perfect breast is a calling her attention, Santana can't help but look at perfect the woman looks. Sure there's a mask on her face covering her eyes but her nose is cute and her lips. God her lips. Santana just wants to kiss them.

* * *

Brittany smiles as she finishes her performance. She's breathing hard trying to catch her breath. The curtain closes and she quickly puts her bra back on. She quickly gathers all the cash that's on the floor and removes the money held in place to her body thanks to her underwear.

She's about to pick up her last dollar when a hand picks it up and hands it to her. Blue eyes meet brown and her stomach drops. She's about to ask what Santana's doing here? No, it can't be.

There's only one way to find out if Santana is the DiablaCaliente "You and I" Brittany says quietly. She observes the Latina. Scared. Uncertain. Nervous.

The brunette just smiles so big her perfect teeth are showing and her eyes proving to Brittany that her smile is indeed genuine. "would make the whole world jealous." She finishes as she inches closer to the blonde with each word she says.

Brittany can't figure out why her legs aren't moving. This is not a good idea. This is only going to end in heartache. Still, she can't get her legs to move and before she knows it, the softest lips place the most perfect kiss on her lips.

She is in so much trouble. But you allow yourself to enjoy this. This kiss is just how you'd imagine it would be. Soft, tender, and slow. She promised it would be slow. Brittany remembers the conversation in the back of her mind and you let out a soft moan and how the Latina starts sucking on her bottom lip. Pale hands hold onto the think frame of the shorter girl pulling her a little closer. Santana's hands are tangled in blonde locks.

* * *

Santana can't believe how good she feels right now. She's dreamt this moment a hundred times. She smirks as she hears the blonde moans into the kiss. Breathing is slowly becoming an issue but neither are ready to pull away. Instead, they breathe hard through their nose. Santana wants to make sure she keeps her promise to give the woman who stole her heart a good first kiss. She remembers how the blonde nervously admitted she'd never been kissed and right at this moment, had she not have known, she wouldn't have guessed the blonde giving her the best kiss of her life had never kissed anyone before.

Breathing. She hates that her body needs oxygen but she pulls away. She gives a chaste kiss.

The tan girl has no time to do anything because the next thing she knows, the masked queen of her dreams is gone. No explanation at all.

Santana makes a move to follow her but the obvious gay man from earlier is in the way.

"Oh no, chica. This area is restricted. Please leave."

"Look, lady"

"Kurt"

"Kurt, if you don't move out of the way, I'm gonna"

"There you are! Santana, I've been looking all over for you."

Santana really wishes the blonde hadn't found her. She's just glad she doesn't have to explain anything. She lets Quinn lead her back to the booth where their respective boyfriends are. With the previous 10 minutes replaying in her head, Santana keeps her eyes glued to the back hoping to see the blonde unmasked. She's there with her friends and they're having a great time and she would be too only if she weren't in the closet, playing heterosexual with her boyfriend, and pinning for a girl she didn't even know.

Twenty minutes later, the blonde is on the stage again. She's changed her outfit. Instead of a dark angel, she's dressed as a naughty scientist. A pencil skirt, a red bra, and a lab coat. Her hair was in a messy bun and she had a ruler in her hand.

Santana watches, like everyone else, as she puts on a show. Toxic gives her only student, a male stripper with too much gel in his hair who's wearing nothing with suspenders attached to his underwear and a bowtie, all her attention.

Santana wishes she could be up there. She wishes she could kiss those lips again. She's also sure her ego is bruised because no one has ever run away from her and she's seriously starting to wonder if the kiss was terrible.

She is sure it was one of the best kisses ever. No contest. None. She'd know because she's had a lot of makes outs. More than she'd like to admit. She's damn sure it was a good kiss.

Her thoughts stop and her breath catches in her throat as Toxic's blue eyes lock with hers. Suddenly, despite the room being filled with catcalls and money being thrown at her, it's just that two of them. Just her and Toxic. She watched as Toxic danced for her. Licking her lips at the skin the blonde exposed for her.

God! She was so sexy. Santana smiled. Though Santana hasn't seen the upper part of her face thanks to her mask, there was no doubt that Toxic was also beautiful. Breathtaking. Perfect. Remembering the many conversations the pair had had, she knows Toxic is intelligent, smart, and super sweet.

Truth be told, the blonde on stage was everything she wanted.

The curtain closes and it's not long before Santana sees her again. She sees her rushing to the front door kissing Kurt and the gel haired man on the cheek. Santana takes note of the time. It is at midnight. She also takes note of the small notebook that falls out of her book bag. She tells Quinn she's gonna get a drink and smoothly makes her way to pick up the notebook.

She opens it hoping it's got a name, a number, anything to contact the blonde with. Nothing. It's just a bunch of numbers and shapes and a bunch of math shit she's sure she's ever seen. That's saying something because she loves math.

She takes her phone out and quickly types a message and adds a picture of the notebook being held up by her face.

**DiablaCaliente:** You forgot something, Babe

**ToxicBlonde:** My notebook?

**DiablaCaliente:** Yup. When can I give it to you?

**ToxicBlonde:** Soon

**DiablaCaliente:** So, you've seen me. What do you think?

**ToxicBlonde:** So hot and your kiss was amazing.

**DiablaCaliente:** :( I thought you didn't like it. You ran away. Why?

**ToxicBlonde:** You can't like me. You shouldn't

**DiablaCaliente:** Too late. Let me see you. You're beautiful by the way. And your body. Yum. I want to see your face babe.

**ToxicBlonde:** What about all that stuff you said about being in the closet?

**DiablaCaliente:** We can still see each other. Please?

**Toxicblonde:** I can't.

* * *

Brittany makes her way to the bathroom and takes a shower. She's tired. She hates having to work. She'd gotten used to stripping. She'd come up with ways to make it more fun for her. Doing skits with some of her stripper friends. Dancing a little. Making the most of it. She'd be making really good money and seeing Santana, aka DiablaCaliente, she felt beautiful for the first time ever.

"What am I going to do with you, Santana Lopez?" She said quietly as she shampooed her hair.


	3. DiablaCaliente

Santana makes her way down the halls of Mckinley High with Quinn next to her. Puck and Mike are already at the end of the hall with two large white cups. Santana smirks at her boyfriend kissing him on his cheek. She looks around looking for this morning victim. It takes her all of two seconds to find the blonde talking to Rachel and Finn. Santana subtly looks the blonde up and down. She rolls her eyes at herself for being such a sucker for blondes with long hair.

"I'm surprised you know how to get dressed blondie. I would have thought you were too stupid to know how clothes work. Remember that time-"

Rachel is about to speak but Santana puts a finger in her face. "Let her finish, Hobbit."

"Thank you, Santana. As I was saying, remember that time where you wore leg warmers on your hands?"

Brittany just rolled her eyes. She doesn't say anything. There's no point. Her stepsister is just going to tell her mother a one-sided story and ground her for no reason.

"Or that time you wore a down aviator hat in the spring?"

Santana will never admit it out loud but the blonde looked absolutely adorable both of those times. Okay so maybe Santana didn't completely hate the blonde. Maybe she just did it because Quinn did. Either way, she wasn't gonna stop it. She cared too much for her reputation as Santana "Diabla" Lopez.

"Let's just get this shit over with." With the quick motion of her hands and a few milliseconds later. She heard a gasp from the blonde. She had thrown the slushy into the taller girl's face.

It was a little out of character for Santana but the blonde reminded her of another blonde who had yet to message her back. It kind of hurt and Santana had been particularly bitchy since Saturday. ToxicBlonde had been MIA. She missed her.

To make her moods worse, she'd gone to the club the next day but the bouncer didn't let her in. Her name got take off the list.

Instead of spending her Sunday night reuniting with Toxic, Santana spends her night looking at the notebook Toxic had dropped. She tried figuring out what kind of math it was. She'd never seen anything like this. She knew the taller girl was intelligent but this was something completely foreign to her. She'd even asked all the math teachers about it but they hadn't seen anything like it. Mr. Robert did manage to say that some of the calculations were a familiar material he covered why studying for his masters and that it was correct but some of it was new to him too.

Santana was stumped. No one was able to help her figure it out. She was beginning to doubt that Toxic was even a student at her school. Something she had recently begun to believe because Toxic mentioned she was studying for the SATs. They were today.

**DiablaCaliente:** Good Luck on your SATs

Santana smiled sadly as she sent the message. Toxic hadn't messaged back. It sucked so bad because Santana has never felt so empty.

She makes her way to the cafeteria where all the desk is spread out in neat rows. There were a good 4 feet of space between each desk. She sits down and checks her phone one last time. Sadly, there's no message and she turns it off.

Five hours later, she puts her pencil down and stretches. The darn test was too damn long even with all the breaks, She gets up turns on her test. As she is walking down the hall, she sees Quinn using the copy machine. She gets this awesome idea. She pulls out the math notebook that's been in her backpack and opens it before placing it facedown on the copy machine's glass surface and putting the lid one it. She makes 100 copies.

Quinn is standing there with a "what the fuck are you doing?"

"I found this notebook and I can't seem to find out who's it is." She shrugs. "Maybe someone will recognize the math and tell me who it belongs to."

She hates that she's sort of lying about not knowing who the notebook belongs to but Toxic refused to meet with her without the mask. She hasn't figured out why though. Like nothing makes sense to her. Toxic finds her hot and she liked the kiss. She's read the messages over and over to no avail. Why did Toxic say she shouldn't like her?

Sure Santana hadn't seen her whole face but she had a killer body, beautiful eyes, and her lips, though thinner than her own, were totally kissable. Santana knows the blonde is good looking.

Despite this, Santana is proud of herself and how she handled her best friend's questioning. Quinn is her best friend which means she knows her best. Quinn can be a total bitch and can use anything against you. People think you're the bitter one of the two and that's not true but you'll never have the guts to correct them. You kind of like being feared anyway. Made everyone leave you the hell alone.

"Just make sure Coach Sue doesn't find out."

"She won't."

"I'll help you put them up in the halls."

* * *

Brittany emerges from the library. She was the first to finish her test. She's wearing Sam's Star Wars hoodie since her shirt was ruined thanks to her being slushied by no other than Santana. Her blonde hair having a little pink strip. She couldn't quite get the color out of it and now she kind of likes it. Her friend Tina thought it was a pink highlight in her hair and yeah Brittany guesses it sort of did look like it was professionally done. Weird, she'd never thought of coloring her hair. Her father would have thought it was cute but she's sure Julie is going to give her extra chores. That or step-sister Quinn would.

How did Quinn ever manage to stay friends with Santana? The bitch was pure evil. Santana, she never really picked on her. She didn't exactly defend her either but she, until today, usually just stood next to Quinn filing away her nails while she chewed gum. Brittany had always thought she was gorgeous and no doubt she might have a bit of a crush on her.

She'd never expected that DiablaCaliente would be Santana. She feels a bit of an idiot because Diabla was Santana's nickname. Still, Santana has no idea who Toxic is. This morning, after the slushy incident, Tina saw her phone light up with a message wishing her luck on SATs. The timing couldn't have been worse. Tina saw it and questioned who it was from.

That girl just too damn nosey for her good. She loves her though. Apart from Sam, Tina was her best friend. So she told her that it was someone she met online.

Boy oh boy. She got a lecture about talking to people online and people not being who they are online. Tina even assumed that the other person could be "some old dude with a beer belly and a tattoo who's into kiddy stuff that's illegal" or worse "a serial killer like that Ted Bundy guy". She almost laughed in her face but Tina was dead serious and Brittany reassured her that she wouldn't meet the person in real life. That was never going to happen.

"What are you looking at, dummy?" Quinn says noticing her.

"Nothing Quinn."

"I'm sure you bombed that test. Finishing first and within the hour is downright ridiculous. You blew your shot at getting into college."

Brittany let Quinn insult her. She knew she was smarter than possibly everyone in this school. She knew things most people her age and older didn't understand. She only pretended to be an idiot because Quinn didn't like that Brittany was so much smarter than her. She'd grown so jealous of the taller, smarter blonde when they had gotten to the third grade. Brittany was just smarter than everyone then but her step-sister told her mother that she was jealous of all the excellent marks the other girl received and her mother made her act like the school's dumbest person since then. She'd hide all her marks, stopped participating in school, and whenever she was called on, she'd say some ridiculous thing. Brittany has said some downright bizarre shit since then. She's not exactly proud of it but it helps her deal with less crap from Quinn or Judy, she'll be happy to continue playing the dumbest student ever. She'd kind of gotten used to the role. It kind of helped her learn to be creative with her thinking.

"Did you dolphins are just gay sharks?" She said out of nowhere.

She swears she sees the Latina's lip almost, almost break into a smile.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Quinn asked confused at what she just said.

Brittany sees Tina and Sam walking towards her. Her friends have the best timing.

"It's time for Glee, Britt."

"So freaking charming. I mean really, Britt the nerd dating Sam the dweeb. It's almost too cute I want to vomit. Almost."

Brittany and her friends just walk away without making any further comments to the two cheerleaders who happened to be at the very top of the social pyramid.

* * *

Santana feels her phone vibrate. She finally gets a message from Toxic and honestly, she can't stop the smile spreading on her lips. It'd been too long since she's heard from her and she's been cranky.

**ToxicBlonde:** I'm sure I passed. It was far too easy.

**DiablaCaliente:** Easy for you cause you're so smart, Genius.

**ToxicBlonde:** You looked hot btw. Saw you throw a slushy at some girl. Mean but still hot.

**DiablaCaliente:** Not my best moment. I usually am not mean to her. Quinn usually just is mean but this is your fault. I thought I was being ghosted. I was a little emotional. She reminded me of you.

* * *

Brittany smiles and Sam notices. He peaks over and realizes she's talking to someone. He has no idea whom but whoever that is, he was determined to find out who was making his crush smile like that. He's had it bad for the blonde since grade school.

"Who are you talking to Britt?" He asked

"No one." She says putting her phone away.

Tina rolls her eyes. She informs Sam that their best friend has been messaging a stranger online and that she may or may not be in love with a pedo. Brittany rolls her eyes and begins stretching out. She's been working on her routine. Mrs. Shuester informed her that a scout for Juilliard would be at sectionals scouting for some new talent. She needed to do her best.

* * *

"Who are you texting?" She heard Quinn ask from behind her.

Santana turned around quickly. She put her phone away and out of sight. There was no way Quinn was going to figure her secret out.

"No one." She responded simply.

"Oh please, quit with the act. I know you're hiding something. You don't smile like that when Puck texts you. You're so cheating on him. So, who is it?" She questions again.

"None of your business but, yeah I am totally cheating on Puck with someone better and hotter than he is."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. Your secret is safe with me. That poor boy. God help him. Someone hotter and better, keep it up. You are such a badass."

The two Cheerleaders make their way out of the hallway and towards the field. Santana feels a million times better since having heard from the blonde. She put up 100 posters with the help of her best friend and she knew for a fact, as per her last conversation with Toxic, that she too was a student at McKinley. She just hoped that someone would lead her to the right person.

Toxic was a trustworthy person. If they'd kissed on Saturday and they're still talking, she hasn't told anyone. There wasn't anyone looking at her funny and her social status wasn't damaged. That meant that her secret was safe. No one knows she's gay.

* * *

Brittany looks at the Glee members who have their mouths wide open in amazement. Sam is the first to clap and cheer and then Tina before everyone joins them. They congratulate her and tell her that the routine is sure to get her into her dream school. She's just so talented one of the boys tells her and she smiles. She smiles so big at the people in this room and thanks to them because they're probably the only few people that believe in here. They truly think she's amazing.

While no one is looking, Sam looks at Brittany's phone and sees a message from DiablaCaliente. He puts the phone away now that he has the information he needs. He quickly comes up with a plan in his head. It's his senior year, after all. There was no way he was going to graduate without letting the blonde know how he felt about her.

He remembers when he first saw her. She was the cutest girl on the playground. She was so nice to everyone and had no problem making friends. He, on the other hand, was a bit shy. She noticed and she came up to him. That was the moment he fell in love with her. They became friends because little Brittany wanted to be friends with everyone. Everything was more simple then. Popularity wasn't a concept any of the preschool kids knew about. Instead of how things where now, where Brittany, Tina, himself, and all the glee kids got made fun of, everyone got along. Puck would chase all the girls giving them germs and all the girls would make faces at him. Santana would always protect the blonde girl.

Even though Brittany was friends with everyone, she and Santana were his best friends. Tina hadn't met them until first grade. They all like to sing and dance. The trio grew into a pretty awesome group of friends. Brittany, Quinn, Santana, Tina, and Sam. Finn, Mike, and Noah would eventually become part of their circle when they were in 5th grade and started to realize that girls were cute and Sam was lucky to be friends with all of them.

He remembers how sad Brittany had gotten with the loss of her father. She'd have less time to hand with all her friends because she was so busy doing chores. She was the glue that held the group together. Everything was changing slowly but quicker than any of them realized. As soon as middle school started, Brittany began to have a hard time in school. Santana and Quinn along with Mike and Noah were interested in different things.

He, Tina, and Finn were the only ones who wanted to still sing and dance all the time. They remained friends even after the group split. Sam seeing her dancing one time as he sang and he realized that he had always liked the blonde. First, because she had always been nice to him, and second because he was quite certain that no one would ever look as beautiful as her.

Brittany is getting ready to start her shift at the club when her phone lights up indicating she's received a message. It's from an unknown number.

**1(419)853-6444** \- Hey there, Toxic. Guess who it is?

Brittany smirks. There are not many people who know her and she's pretty sure there's only a small group of people that know her number. She isn't exactly popular. Something about this is completely off. First, no one knows her as Toxic except for Santana and her stepmother. Second, there are about 6 people who know her number. She doesn't give it out to anyone. 6 people have her number, her 2 friends, her stepmother, her stepsisters and her 2 gay co-workers who happen to be old enough to be her parental figures. The last two only have her number because they genuinely have her best interest at heart. 6 people. She knows Santana wouldn't have the balls to get her number because she knows the Latina is way too far in the closet to ever risk her secret being found out.

She's going to humor this person randomly texting her. She doesn't like to be lied to.

**1(419)643-5634** \- Hey, who's this?

**1(419)853-6444** \- LatinaCaliente

**1(419)643-5634** \- Me and you…..

**1(419)853-6444** \- Should meet up? I want to meet you, Britt:)

Brittany rolls her eyes. She starts walking her brain trying to figure out who it can possibly be. Quickly narrowing the list, she concludes its either Tina or Sam.

**ToxicBlonde:** She reminded you of me? I am personally offended.

Brittany smiled. Referring to herself in the third person is weird but maybe she'll feel comfortable meeting Santana if she can see what Santana thinks of her without letting Santana know Toxic and Brittany were one person.

**DiablaCaliente:** She's not that bad. I was friends with her once. Totally had a crush on her

Brittany was taken aback by the revelation. Never in a million years did she ever think that.

**ToxicBlonde:** You had a crush on loser Brittany? What happened?

**DiablaCaliente:** Quinn started picking on her. She also joined Glee. Her social status went way down.

**ToxicBlonde:** Do you still have a crush on her?

**DiablaCaliente:** I have a much bigger crush on you. You are way more awesome.

Brittany read the last message again. Did that mean Santana still had a crush on Brittny "the loser"?

**1(419)853-6444**\- I'll be at the Lima Bean wearing a black shirt. Hopefully, I'll see you there.

Brittany forgot the stranger who texted her. She was going to meet them at the Lima Bean. She was curious as to who the person messaging her was.

**ToxicBlonde:** Can't believe you still have a crush on Brittany. How am I more awesome? You haven't even seen my whole face

**DiablaCaliente:** True but I've seen everything else and let me tell you, there's no way I won't find you attractive.

Brittany believes that but she knows that Santana is all about her social status right now. It is the most important thing in her life at the moment. She's not even sure if Santana would believe that Toxic and Brittany are the same people. No one but her teachers knows she's smart and no one outside of glee knows how good of a dancer she is. Her stepmother and sister were the only ones that knew she was a stripper. Having an under-aged girl stripping is illegal. She's pretty certain most people don't even know that she and Quinn are stepsisters. Sure they were best friends first but they never told anyone their parents got married. Once both of them started middle school, there was no way Quinn was going to admit she and Brittany lived in the same house. That'd be social suicide.

**ToxicBlonde**: Only time will tell.


	4. Quinn

Brittany walked into the Lima Bean. She's going to meet the mystery person that texted her claiming they were DiablaCaliente. She is already aware that the person is a fake but she wants to know what kind of person invaded her privacy. Tina or Sam. Both are her best friends. Or so she thinks.

Her blue eyes scan for a person wearing a black shirt. She doesn't see anyone. Perhaps she's early. She has no problem waiting. She gets a hot chocolate and chooses to pass the time watching at dance choreography videos. Its the way she learned proper dancing technique since Judy took her out of dance classes almost as soon as her father passed. Dancing is easy and so natural to her but she really wants to learn the proper technique.

She hears someone sitting down before she sees them. It causes her to look up from her phone.

"Sam?"

"Hey there, Brittany."

"You? You're LatinaCaliente?" She asked with a look of disbelief.

She knows it's he isn't and that she's being lied to. Ugh! Of course, it had to be Sam. It had been painfully obvious since they were kids that Sam had feelings for her. She wants to be mad at the guy but she just genuinely feels bad for him. She wonders if she should let him know that she already knows the truth.

"You know Latina references a female, right?"

"I'm not exactly the best at Spanish." He said blushing.

Brittany decides to spare the guy. She doesn't want to lead him on and it would just make it harder for him if she falsely gives him hope.

"Sam, I know you aren't LatinaCaliente. I know because I know who she is."

"She?" He asked confused.

Brittany hadn't really told anyone she was gay and it's not because she was in the closet or anything but rather because she didn't see the point in doing so if she wasn't exactly on the market. She'd always figured if someone asked her, then she'd openly admit it.

"Sam, you're a great guy. Cute even. I also happen to know for a fact that you've got some mean killer abs you've been working on since freshman year." She teases.

Sam blushes. He had been working on his body since freshman year. He changed his diet, workout 6 days a week, and made sure he slept well. He's happy someone noticed. He wasn't exactly comfortable about his body quite yet because he was so shy.

"Thanks," He said shyly.

"No seriously, fucking amazing. I'm sure some girls would go crazy for them but I am not one of those girls. Sam, I am gay."

"Oh. Well, this is just awkward."

"I'm flattered. I also think you only like me because I'm one of the few girls who get you. I also know that you are a really good guy. You're funny, you're well mannered and sincere. Put yourself out there a little more. Any girl would be happy to claim you as hers."

"You think so?" He asked unsurely.

"I am pretty sure Mercedes Jones has a big crush for you."

Sam smiles excitedly. She was cute.

"Oh yeah. She's always giving me the stink eye. Don't look right way but she's on the left and she's been staring at you for the last 15 minutes. The girl has got it bad."

Sam waits a few minutes before discretely looking to their left and locks eyes with the darker-skinned girl. Mercedes instantly looks away blushing.

"I think that you should walk over there and introduce yourself. I hear she's nice."

Brittany watches as Sam makes his way over to the table where the girl is sitting and introduces himself. He can tell by the face Sam makes that he is trying out of his many impersonations and she smiles when Mercedes giggles. She invites him to sit and she can tell by his demur that he had relaxed. He turns to smile at Brittany mouthing a quick thanks to which she responds by giving him two thumbs up.

Brittany's pretty happy with how the whole situation went down. Realizing the time, she realizes she's got to go to work.

Kurt greets her and helps her do her hair. He and his husband, Blaine, were her friends but also like her parents. Since her dad had died, Judy hadn't been a great parent. Brittany figured Judy only married her father for money. Kurt and Blaine were always giving her advice or letting her know that they were proud of her. They may not be her parents officially but they were better than what she had. Kurt and Blaine had reported Judy to CPS but nothing came of it.

"Santana came by again. She's been looking for you." He tells her.

Brittany had told him about the girl and all that had happened between them. She let them know how long they had been talking, how they met, and even the most recent events that transpired between them.

"I didn't let her in. She's been trying to get back in a few times. She even asked about you. Britt, she's very persistent."

She smiled. "Thanks, Kurt. You already know that she can't find out who I am. It'll change everything. I'm also not sure she's ready to be out of the closet yet. Status is more important to her. I don't want to be the one to push her out and then have her realize she did it for no reason."

"Britt, you're better than everyone at that school. You say Quinn and Santana are the most popular but if Quinn is anything to go by, you are surely better than anyone there." Blaine says as she walks into the dressing room. He kisses Kurt on the lips. "You're up, Toxic." He tells her with a wink.

She checks her self in the mirror as Kurt finishes up and stands up.

"Time to make it rain. It's Brittany, Bitch."

It's been three weeks and Santana hasn't managed to gain any leads from her posters. She hasn't managed to convince Toxic to meet up with her. Ever since the kiss, she hasn't been able to find her. She hasn't been able to get back into the club. She even waited in the clubs parking lot but even then. Toxic wasn't alone. She never waited again realizing her behavior was borderline stalkerish. Still, she wants to meet the blonde and get to talk to her face to face.

LatinaCaliente: It's crazy to think that in the very room, while we are all getting our SAT scores, you and I are in the same room.

She takes a moment to look around the gym lines. She tries to narrow down who her mystery person is but practically everyone is on their phone.

ToxicBlonde: You are too cute. I hope you are very happy with your score. I'm about to get mine.

The Latina looks around trying again to narrow down her options and she can't figure it out. Santana never realized how many blondes were at her school. Hey, she's popular but that doesn't mean she knows everyone. Quinn, Sam, and Brittany were the only blondes she knew.

She gets her scores and is pretty pleased with it. She scored a bit higher than she was aiming for. Quinn, Noah, and Mike are also pretty pleased with their scores. They make their way out of the gym and away from the crowd

She doesn't have much time to think because the next thing she knows is that Quinn is pushing Brittany up against the lockers and Noah is keeping Sam from trying to help Brittany.

"I never thought you had it in your dummy. I overheard Principal Figgins personally congratulating you on your perfect score. That's never been done before."

Santana watches the exchange with confusion. Quinn always picked on Brittany. She never fully understood why. Yeah okay, Brittany did say some off the wall shit. Like some of it was just plain weird and okay maybe some of it was cute and funny but she never understood why Quinn made fun of the taller blonde.

Then it hits her. Holy shit! Quinn is jealous. She's jealous of Brittany. Her best friend is a bitch. There's no mistake about that but Brittany often was on the receiving end of her more intense moments.

She can't believe Quinn is jealous. She'll talk with her later but for not, she needed to put a stop to this ridiculous scene unfolding before her. There was no way her best friend was going to get in a fight over something silly. She'd regret it when she started applying for colleges.

"Okay, okay stop!" Santana exclaimed.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"You can't seriously be picking on her because she's smart and got a perfect score. I mean seriously?" She questioned.

"There is no way she is smart. Lucky, perhaps but smart? Fat chance. She's the dumbest person in this school. I know you remember very clearly that her response earlier." Quinn explained.

"I'm pretty sure Mr. Takana quit his job because of that answer." Puck added.

Santana can't believe she's hearing this. Are her friends okay?

"Mr. Takana left because Ms. Philsbury broke up with him. Quinn, have you ever seen any of her grades?"

She waits for a second to get a response. She receives none.

"Exactly. Congratulations, she played us all. Now, can we get the fuck out of here? I want to go to Breadsticks."

Quinn lets Brittany got and Puck lets Sam comfort Brittany. As they were walking away, she turned around and shouted to Brittany's retrieving figure.

"Don't think we're friends again but pretty impressive, Britt." She said with a smirk.

For the moment, nothing else mattered to the brunette. She was going to go to Breadsticks and celebrate with her friends. Figuring out who Toxic was would just have to wait. Once the boys had left, Santana thought it is the perfect time to talk to Quinn about the girl's jealousy of their previous best friend.

"You know, I never understood why you started picking on Brittany in the first place. We used to be really good friends with her and then you stopped. Why?"

"I…"

Quinn took a moment to gather her words. How could she explain what she feels? How can she explain the feeling of being jealous of someone who no one knows is your step-sister? That she's been jealous of her stepsister because she was smarter, nicer, and more talented than Quinn could ever be. She remembers all the awards Brittany had gotten over the years. Quinn had gotten some too but not nearly as much as her. She'd get a perfect grade on all her tests. Adding to that, Brittany was a freaking talented dancer. She'd dance around to Santana singing. She was a natural.

Quinn noticed how Santana idolized her. The Latina had it bad for her step-sister and she was jealous. Why couldn't Santana like her instead? Wasn't she good enough? Wasn't she smart enough? Why did Santana have to like her sister? More importantly, why did Quinn have all these fucking feelings towards her best friend, a girl?

After her step-father died, Judy pushed Quinn to be mean to her. It started with making Brittany pretend she was dumb. Then after noticing she was becoming an even better dancer, making her sister not join cheerios. She didn't like making Brittany do this at first but when they got to high-school, it all got easier. Brittany had joined Glee and while she danced and sang there, she wasn't too worried because no one paid attention to the glee kids. All she had to do was get everyone else to ignore the blonde while she got herself and Santana to the top of the social pyramid. She knew Santana would care too much for her popularity to continue socializing with Brittany.

She looks at Santana who is still waiting for a response.

"You know you can tell me anything, right? You're my best friend."

Quinn wishes she could get rid of her feelings for her best friend. It killed her to know her feelings would never be returned. So, while she didn't like being mean to her step-sister at first, it did get easier to make her suffer just a little like she was suffering knowing her feelings for the Latina would never be returned.

How can she tell the person she had feelings for that she was the reason for her treatment of Brittany?

She couldn't.

"She's an easy target." She responded simply.

Santana was knew better than to push Quinn when it came to things she didn't want to talk about. Then she remembered, Quinn was the one that got them into the strip club. Maybe Quinn could let her get in again.

"Hey, Quinn, how Puck able to get us into the strip club?" She asked recalling how Quinn was the first to tell her since her the boy couldn't get ahold of her. Ah had purposefully been ignoring him that day.

Quinn looked at her with a confused lol.

"You know, I am not entirely sure. My mother owns it. I guess I can ask her for you." She thought about it for a second. "On second thought, let's not. I'm not even sure she knows we were there."

Santana never knew that Quinn's mother owned the strip club. She ponders for a second. Did Judy know she had someone underage working at her club? She's pretty sure Toxic had been working there for several years. Even if she was of age now, she had to be underage when she started.

"Does your mom have any underage workers?" She asked. She hadn't intended on letting her inner thoughts slip out but the question left her mouth before she even realized it. No turning back now.

"What? No. My mother doesn't hire anyone under 18. It'd be again the law to do that."

Santana realizes that Quinn is right and she doesn't know if Quinn genuinely doesn't know about Toxic or if she's pretending she doesn't know to protect her mom.

"Why are you asking me these questions?"

"I think one of your mom's workers goes to this school." Santana is careful with her words. She doesn't want to reveal too much.

"We went one time! Is there something you're not telling me?"

It's obvious to Santana that Quinn has no idea what her mother has been doing. Then she remembers the notebook she had found weeks ago. A light bulb goes off in her head.

"Who could you have possibly talked to in there that goes to this school?" Quinn questioned again trying to get information. She didn't like that the Latina was insinuating that her mother was doing illegal things.

She needs to find Brittany. Brittany got a perfect score on her SATs. She had to know what kind of stuff was in that notebook. Fuck. She needed to talk to Brittany as soon as possible. She looks at the time. If she rushes now, she can find her on campus with the glee kids. Brittany was going to be the person that tells her how to find out who Toxic is. At the very least, Brittany could help her identify the other math subject her teachers failed to comprehend. It'd be her next clue. She got up promptly making the chair fall behind her.

"I just remembered I have to go take care of something real quick. I'll text you. " She doesn't give a chance for her best friend to protest.

"Hey, you come back here! Santana!"

Santana continues walking out. She needs to speak with Brittany right away.

Quinn stays seated processing the conversation she had with Santana. She had never been to the strip club her mother joined before that night with her friends. To be honest, she wasn't even sure why her mother had let her go. Aside from Puck, none of her friends were legally allowed to enter the strip club. Why would her mother let them in the club? She spent some time thinking of all the dancers she saw that night. None of them looked like they were underage. Who had Santana been referencing?

She needed to find Puck. He was the one that got them in. The boy bragged about it for the past few weeks. She hated it. Why Santana to pretend to be into him was beyond her. The Latina was very adamant about keeping her sexuality a secret. She only knew Santana was gay because she liked her. It takes one to know one she guesses. Plus, the gaydar helped. Okay, her gaydar sucked but Santana hadn't been sneaky. It was obvious to her. It possibly had to do with her having feelings for her but whatever.

She texts Puck but doesn't receive a reply. After calling him and reaching his voicemail, she decides to go home. The whole way there she tried to figure out who Santana could be talking about. Had her mother hired underaged workers?

Pulling up to her house, she spots Puck's car. She knows Brittany isn't home, not that Puck would visit her bit if she wasn't home, who could Puck be visiting? He had left Breadsticks earlier saying that he had to clean a pool. It was believable since he did have a cleaning pool business but Quinn didn't have a pool. What the fuck is going on?

She makes her way to her front door, quietly enters her home and shuts the door behind her. Nothing could have prepared her for what she was currently seeing. Puck and her mother were fucking on the couch.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Puck and her mother freeze. Quinn turns around and lets them dress. She is so pissed off.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE PUCKERMAN!"

Once Puck is out of the house and she sure her mother must be dressed by now she turns around. She's never been this angry.

"THAT'S MY BEST FRIENDS BOYFRIEND. HE JUST TURNED 18!"

"Quinn, honey, I know you're upset but I'm just having a little fun. Boys like Puck only want one thing."

"IT'S ILLEGAL!"

"He had no issues with it I assure you."

Quinn didn't know what to make of this situation. Her mother was acting as if everything was normal. She didn't even know her mother right now.

"Why did allow him on the list to enter Sin City? Did Puck put you up to it?"

"He didn't put me up to it. It was simply a present. There was no harm. You and your friends had fun." She explained letting her know that she hs known that Puck wasn't the only one that visited the club.

"Do you or have you ever had underage dancers working at the strip club?" She asked getting straight the question Santana had asked her earlier. She needed to know.

"You have no idea the number of sacrifices I've had to make to provide for this family. You're questioning is way out of line and I do not appreciate it. I am your mother. Like it or not, I am in charge here. Get off your high horse. This isn't your high school. I am in charge here. Don't forget that." Her tone was calm but Quinn doesn't miss the look in her eyes and the voice she uses. Its been long awhile since her mother was like this.

It gave her chills down her spine.

Quinn had always known her mother was different than everyone else's mom. Before she was born, her father had died unexpectedly. Her mother worked hard to make sure they had everything they needed. When she met Brittany's father, she thought her mother had changed. She remembers her mother being in the best of moods when her step-father was still round. After he too had unexpectedly passed away, her mother quickly returned to her old self. Always demanding more from Quinn. Always pushing her to be mean and selfish like her. Always pushing her to be mean to Brittany. To put her in her place. To never let anyone outshine her.

Looking at her mother now, she wishes she would have noticed the signs much earlier. She shakes her head and runs up to her room. Her mother was the reason why she was a fucked-up person.


	5. Brittany

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deleted the last chapter. I seemed to have either mistyped the name or posted “DiablaCaliente” twice. 
> 
> Sorry if this messes up you flow of things.

Brittany was confused as to why suddenly the brunette was talking to her again. Just a few hours ago, she was getting bullied for her SAT score, Santana stuck up for her, and minutes after that the same brunette made it very clear that they weren't friends. She was speaking rapidly and the blonde was having a hard time keeping up.

"Santana, slow down."

"Thank god, I found you here. I need your help figuring out what this is." She pulls out the notebook so she hands it to Brittany who carefully looks at it. "I've asked around campus to see if anyone knew what some of that stuff was but I didn't get too far. Only one teacher knew what some of that stuff was but not all of it. Since you scored a perfect score on your SAT, I figured you may know what it is or perhaps you've seen someone working on something like this. Any information would be greatly appreciated."

Brittany looked at the notebook carefully. She pretended to study its contexts as Santana watched her curiously. Brittany could tell with her peripheral vision that Santana was hopeful.

Brittany knows exactly what this is. It's something she's been working on for some time. She dubs it the Brittany code. It’s her take on the String theory. It wasn't a proven theory but if her math was correct, it would be groundbreaking. She was interested in pursuing mathematics as a second option if she couldn't go anywhere with her dreams of becoming a dancer.

She identifies some of the theories that the math teachers probably were able to identify. Santana had informed her that, that's exactly what one of the teachers had said. She takes a moment to study her work carefully checking for any miscalculations. Using her peripheral vision, she notes how Santana studies her face.

"This one here is a little different. I've seen it in some of the books I study. It's interesting and a little different than what I have seen but based on what's written here and here, this person is probably looking at the String Theory."

As she finishes she gives Santana all her attention. She smirks at the look of complete confusion at the mentions of the topics. She didn't want to reveal who she was to Santana. They were from totally different worlds with different priorities. She wishes things were different for them because she really does think they would make the world jealous.

"That's not all. Some of the stuff in the middle references the Quantum Theory and the Category Theory."

"How do you know all this math stuff? I talked to Mr. Robert about some of this stuff he said he'd seen some of it in college and some of it he had no idea what it was."

"I mean I did score a perfect score on my SATs. I'm not exactly dumb as I've made it seem."

"Clearly. How'd you get into it? Is there a club for that, too? Do you know of anyone who might know how to do all this stuff?"

"Nope. No club and no I don't know anyone who can do this stuff. I have a hard time understanding it as it is. Whoever this belongs to, I'm sure they're way smarter than me. I only got into it because of the show "Numbers". As it turns out, I am a total nerd."

She smiles when Santana playfully rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell anyone my secret. I am already bullied as it is." The blonde whispers playfully.

Brittany notices the look of regret on Santana's face.

"I’m sorry about the other day. It was really rude of me to do that to you. Though, I must say the pink hair was pretty cool."

"I thought so too. Thanks for earlier."

The fact that this is the longest conversation they've had in person since middle school does not go unnoticed. She likes it. She didn't realize how much she actually missed being friends with Santana. The two had always been the closest until her father died. Perhaps if she hands shut all her friends out, maybe she and Santana would have ended up together already. Maybe, maybe not. For sure they would all be friends. She's pretty sure she would have made a great cheerleader. The three of them would've ruled the school. She smiles at the thought. Santana hasn't said anything and the two of them had been sitting in silence for a while. The sun was already setting and that meant her free time was running out. Her shift started soon.

"Is there anything else I could help you with?" Brittany whispered.

Blue eyes lock with brown eyes. The blonde wants nothing more than to stay here. To tell the beautiful girl in from of her that she is the person she's been looking for, for the past few weeks. She wants to tell her that she's sorry for refusing to meet her. To make her see that yes the both of them would make the world jealous. She couldn't. She wouldn't.

"No." Santana shook her head. "No, you've helped so much. Seriously, thank you." Her voice was low. She wanted to be here in this moment with the blonde. She seriously missed their friendship. She hadn't really realized how much until this moment.

They both get up from the bench which they were seated on for the past hour. Brittany offers her a handshake, Santana offered a hug. It's a bit awkward because then Brittany offers a hug and Santana offers a handshake. Again, awkward. They giggle before Brittany defuses the weirdness between them by just going for a hug. She almost pulls away when Santana's arms finally wrapped around her.

"After this hug," Santana whispers into Brittany's ear sending shivers down her spine. "we're going back to…"

Brittany pulls away with a smirk on her lips before she finishes her sentence. Something she did even when they were younger. "not being friends."

"So smart," Santana says with a lopsided smile. There's this feeling that's so familiar. She hasn't felt it in years. Not since she stopped being friends with the beautiful blonde in front of her. Santana ignores the voice in the back of her head telling her that this is the same feeling she had the night she kissed Toxic because there's no way Brittany would do that kind of work.

"I've got to go but I hope you find the owner of the notebook. Let them know I want to pick their brain too."

Santana shook her head. "See you around, Blondie."

Brittany smiles as Santana walks away before looking at the time on her phone. She's got 15 minutes to make it work. Great.

* * *

As usual, Kurt greets her at the door. Kurts telling her about Judy's most recent visit and how she's been acting strange. He kept going on and on about her strange behavior and some of the things she was saying.

"All I'm saying Britt is that you are more than welcome to move in with Blaine and me. Judy looks like she's losing it and you know how much Blaine and I care about you. We love you. You're like a daughter to us."

"It means a lot to me, Kurt. Really. You're all that I have."

"You are a very smart school. I know you want to get into Juilliard and I believe you'll get there. If not with a scholarship then with your grades. Perfect SAT scores are rare. Plus, you're way yo smart to be doing this."

"You know I have no choice. I've been doing this since I was a sophomore."

"And I reported it. I still can't believe nothing happened."

"It's fine Kurt. I'm gonna get out of Lima. Judy nor Quinn is going to keep me here. I'm going places."

"One way or another. That's for sure."

"You're on, Britt." They hear Blaine say from outside the dressing room.

"The show must go on," Brittany said before standing up and hugging Kurt and making her way to the stage.

When she started working here, she had a hard time stripping. She wasn't good at it. She remembers how it felt to be up there the first night. To expose her body to men who she didn't even know the names of or cared to even know. As terrible as it was, she made a lot of money that night. A few of the old men that night had taken a liking towards the obvious underaged girl. She threw up as soon as she got off the stage.

The weeks that followed didn't get much better. She'd been miserable. Finding little time to get her homework done or to practice dance. Between school and work, Brittany hardly slept well. If it weren't for Kurt making sure she took naps in the dressing room couch to get through the day. He also completed her homework and allowed her dance before opening time on the stage in from to of mirrors, she wouldn't be where she was today. Because Kurt knew when Judy would be stopping by, Britt didn't have to dance every night.

As she got older, the stripping got easier. She found a way to turn her performances into some sort of theatrical release. Playing characters and dancing in costumes allowed her to pretend she was someone else on stage and not her innocent self. She learned very quickly to separate herself and the stripper persona even though they were the same.

"Britt, honey, we're closing soon. You ready to go?" She heard Kurt say.

"Can I have an hour in here?" She asked.

"Sure sweetie. Knock on my door when you're done."

Brittany walks over to the speaker system and lets her iPhone pick a random song. The piano melody is perfect. Contemporary is her favorite type of dance. She closes her eyes and lets the music move her. Her movements are fluid. Unpredictable. When she dances, Brittany doesn't move to the music. Beautifully so.

An hour later she was on her way home. It was already One and she hadn't really expected anyone to be up. She quietly makes her way upstairs. Not noticing the item that had fallen out of her bag. She showers brush her teeth and she falls asleep as her head hits the pillow.

* * *

Santana is walking from Quinn's room to the restroom. She steps on something. Looking down to retrieve it, the item, all feelings of tiredness leave her body. She stands up and examines the mask. She knows this mask. It belongs to Toxic, Why would her Mask be in Quinn's house?

She looks around for clues. Anything to help her. She didn't understand what this mask was doing here. Quinn wasn't going to tell her. She was only here because Quinn called her crying about her encounter with her mother and her now ex-boyfriend. Something was going on here. She couldn't shake the feeling.

She makes her way to the bathroom. Examines the mask under the light. She didn't need to as she was pretty familiar with the mask itself. The sun is close to rising. If she's quick, she can get a bit more sleep. All she wants to do is go back to bed but she knows she won't be able too. Not when she's so close to finding out who her mystery girl is.

She quietly makes her way back to Quinn's room. Her phone is charging in her bedside table.

**DiablaCaliente**: I think I know who you are

Santana isn't surprised when she doesn't see Quinn's phone light up. She had already concluded that Quinn was not Toxic. Finding the mask in Quinn's home let her know that Quinn knows something or someone in this house did. She's already suspicious of Judy. She knows for a fact that Quinn's mother hired underage workers. She also learned not too long ago that Judy slept with an underaged young man. As it stands, Judy has broken the law at least twice.

If Quinn isn't Toxic then who is?

* * *

Santana can hear an alarm going off. It gets turned off. She's been in this house often to know where Quinn's mother sleeps. The alarm she heard came from another part of the house.

She quietly gets out of the room hoping to figure out where it had come from.

A few minutes later she hears it again. She follows the sound. This time the alarm stayed blasting. She follows the sound and it leads her down the hallway she reaches the wall and to her dismay, the alarm is shut off. She looks around the area observing what's around her. She hears it again a moment later. She looks up and realizes there's an entry to the attic. This doesn't make any sense. If Quinn and Judy were the only ones living in this house, why was their an alarm going off in the attic? She hears movement from behind the attic. She is about to pull the rope on the entryway to investigate when she sees Judy appear from her room.

"Santana, you seem to be up a little early this morning. You should go back to bed." Judy says.

Something in the tone she used gave chills to Santana. They weren't the feel-good kind either. It sounded like a warning. As much as Santana wanted to go upstairs, the look Judy was giving her made her retrieve her arm and is to make her way upstairs

She reaches Quinn's door and through her peripheral vision can see that Judy is eyeing her every move. She had hoped the older woman would turn around. so she could investigate the alarm sound she heard earlier. She was unlucky. She opens the door to Quinn's room and closes it behind her. She waits a few minutes before opening it again but only leaving a creak open. Thankfully, she had a clear view of the attic from Quinn's room.

Her heart stooped as the entrance dropped reaving a staircase. She saw a pair of shoes as the person began to make their way down. Slowly, the person coming down came more into view until they were completely out.

"No fucking way." She whispered. She couldn't believe her eyes. "What the fuck is Brittany doing here?"

She closes the door when she hears Quinn calling her name and asking her to come back to bed. Santana doesn't want to. She needed to know what Brittany was doing in the Fabray home.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Mind letting me know why the hell I just saw Brittany come down from your attic?"

Quinn sits up in her bed and rubs the sleep from her eyes. "I knew you'd find out eventually."

"You better have one hell of an explanation. You better start talking Q."

"I suppose there's no point in beating around the bush. Brittany is my step-sister. Her father and my mother married when we were kids. God bless his soul." She said with a sickly sweet tone.

"Save the attitude for your mother," she says simply. "You and Brittany are step-sisters? Since when? Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Since we were 7. Why do you think I started hanging out with you guys?"

Santana can't believe what she is hearing. This didn't help clear up any confusion. It just created more inside her head.

Her phone chimes. She's got a message from Toxic. The timing was impeccable.

**ToxicBlonde**: Bound to happen sooner than later, Santana Lopez. No matter what happens, Your secret is safe with me.

Santana frowns. ToxicBlonde has never referred to her by name. Even after their first kiss. With everything that is happening currently, she feels like something is changing. She outs the phone away. Focusing on the issue at hand.

Santana needs to know. She has so many questions. Both of them involving blondes were important to her. She throws Quinn the mask she had found on the floor in the early hours of the morning.

"Have you ever seen this?" She asks blatantly. "Don't lie to me. Please."

"Never. I swear. I've never seen it before."

"Do you have any idea of how it got into your house?"

"If I've never seen it before, no. It's way too early for this. Am I missing something?" Quinn asks as she watched Santana change clothes and pack her stuff up. "Where are you going? I need you right now. Just yesterday I walked in on my mother sleeping with Noah. Be a pal will you?"

"I have questions. Lots of them." She's pissed off. She feels so stupid for not noticing this sooner. "I need to speak to Brittany who I've just discovered is your step-sister."

Quinn hates Brittany. After all these years, Santana still puts her first. "I always knew you loved her."

Santana freezes. She hadn't expected that. "What are you talking about Q?"

"Don't try to play this off. You've had feelings for her since we were kids. Always looking at her like she was the best god damn thing in the world. I was always jealous." Quinns got her bitch face on. Tears on the rims of her eyes bit she refuses to let them fall. She wants someone to hurt as bad as she does.

Santana, now looking at Quinn, with tears coming down her eyes. She dared not to speak. She feared doing so would break the bit of courage left in her body. She wasn't ready to admit who she was. There was something good about being able to remain anonymous with Toxic. Being anonymous mean that Santana wouldn't have to deal with her truth just yet. She doesn't like that at nearly 18 years old she is still a scared little girl.

"I'm jealous of Brittany because even after breaking you guys apart, she still has this hold on you. No matter how far you guys grow apart you still look at her that way. You love her."

"Don't," Santana muttered. "Don't you dare say that about me."

"It's true though. You want to know how I know?" Her tone was sickly sweet. Condescending. It's her bitch tone. Santana hates it. Quinn knows she hates it.

"You don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

"Don't I though?" Quinn puts on the mask that Santana questions about moments ago. "We all wear masks, San. Everyone has something to hide. Even me. I kept your secret safe. When the time comes, I know you will keep mine." She took off the mask and tossed it to her friend. "I'm guessing the mask and notebook belong to the same person. You wouldn't be asking me otherwise. The answer is obvious now that I think about it. I want to ruin your little Cinderella moment but I won't."

"Tell me who they belong to," Santana begged.

"I can't. Don't overthink it. She wasn't hiding." She takes off the mask and hands it back to Santana. "You have just been ignoring all the signs." With that, Quinn makes her way out of the room and into the bathroom down the hall leaving Santana to think about what she just said.

Like a movie, everything that happened starts replaying in her head.

\\\

_"_ _You can't like me. You shouldn't."_

_" I am already bullied as it is"_

_" _ _God, she was so sexy"_

_Santana subtly looks the blonde up and down._

_"_ _I am a total nerd."_

_"_ S_he knows the blonde is good looking."_

_It was a little out of character for Santana but the blonde reminded her of another blonde who had yet to message her back._

_She knows Toxic is intelligent, smart, and super sweet._

_"Toxic mentioned she was studying for the SATs"_

_"_ _I'm sure I passed. It was far too easy."_

_"_ _Easy for you cause you're so smart, Genius."_

_"_ _Oh please quit with the act. I know you're hiding something. You don't smile like that when Noah text you. You're so cheating on him. So, who is it?"_

_"_ _Secret safe with me."_

_"_ _She's not that bad. I was friends with her once. Totally had a crush on her"_

_"_ _Can't believe you still have a crush on Brittany."_

_"_ _Quinn, Sam, and Brittany were the only blondes she personally knew."_

_"Co_ _ngratulations on your perfect score. Apparently, that's never been done before."_

_"_ _You can't seriously be picking on her because she's smart and got a perfect score."_

_" T_ _his person is probably looking at the String Theory." _

_"_ _Some of the stuff in the middle references the Quantum Theory and the Category Theory."_

_"_ _I did score a perfect score on my SATs"_

_They both get up from the bench which they were seated on for the past hour_

_Santana's arms finally wrapped around her._

There's_ this feeling that's so familiar. She hasn't felt it in years. Not since she stopped being friends with the beautiful blonde in front of her. Santana ignores the voice in the back of her head telling her that this is the same feeling she had the night she kissed Toxic._

_She stands up and examines the mask. She knows this mask. It belongs to Toxic_

_"_ _What the fuck is Brittany doing here?"_

_"_ _The answer is obvious now"_

_"She wasn't really hiding"_

_//_

The realization hits her like a ton of bricks.

"Brittany is Toxic," she states without a doubt. It was after all the truth.


	6. Santana

Every morning, Brittany makes breakfast for Judy. She's been doing it since she was 12. Judy paid for culinary classes just so she could make whatever Judy desired. Sometimes she wanted extravagant meals and other times she wanted simple things like a fruit salad and a bagel with cream cheese. This morning, Judy requested pancakes, eggs, bacon, and freshly squeezed orange juice.

"I want you to be extra nice to Quinn, Brittany. I did a big oopsie and she's mad at me." Her voice is sweet but her demeanor is questionable. There's a lack of empathy and regret. Like she understands she did something wrong and is apologizing but doesn't understand why she should have to.

Brittany simply smiles and nods. Being extra nice to Quinn meant staying out of her way completely. It was also a signal for her to find someplace to go. She normally would go to work but she knows Kurt and his husband, Blaine were going to be busy until his shift. It was their anniversary. She'll figure out but she knew she needed to get out of the house.

* * *

Santana, having just realized that the mysterious dancer that she had strong feelings for was the same person who was already in her heart since the day they met. The girl that made her feel something so strongly that she got scared. She chose to stick with Quinn because her feelings were so intense and so strong that she was too afraid she'd ruin the chances of being with her for the rest of her life if she did something stupid in high school. She could be a real idiot sometimes. Recently, she failed to realize that despite the blatantly obvious signs, Brittany and Toxic were the same people. She scolds herself once again. She's wasted so much time.

However long it took, Santana knows the truth now. This wasn't some silly high school romance. Brittany was her soul mate and she deserved the best version of Santana. Unfortunately, Santana doesn't feel she was currently. Santana is now was an awful person. Dating guys because her reputation depended on it. She was also a cheater. And okay she cheated on all those guys with Toxic, who turned out to be Brittany, but still, she cheated. Santana knows she would never cheat on Brittany but she isn't sure she's ready for everyone to know about her feelings for the blonde.

Santana's head feels crowded. She has so many thoughts about the most recent discovery. She hears the water being turned off. She doesn't want to be here when Quinn gets out. Right now she just wants to get home and process things more clearly. She sneaks out of the window as she's done hundreds of times before. She gets in her car and makes her way home.

Santana is mentally preparing herself for how she wants to approach Brittany. She's learned so many new things about the blonde. She's step-sisters with her best friend, Brittany is a stripper, Brittany is incredibly intelligent, and above all the girl who managed to steal her heart, not once but twice. Twice.

She wants to get to know the blonde again. Toxic was a whole new side of the blonde she hadn't personally known. She'd talked to her, sure but apart from that single visit to Sin City, she hadn't physically met her. She'd known Brittany years ago. Even then, the Brittany she knew years ago had grown. Much like she had, Brittany grew up. There were many new sides to Brittany then when they were kids. That was a good thing. Not that she preferred the more confident blonde to the quieter to her self blonde but simply because she wanted to know all sides Brittany had.

Despite the many changes, one thing has remained a fact. Since they were kids, the taller blonde had captivated her with all that she was. Even though they both changed so much, her feelings still stayed the same. Santana shales her head, how could she not notice how deep a strong her feelings for the blonde were. Quinn was right, she loved her. To her Brittany really was the best damn thing in the damn world. She scolds herself again. How the fuck did quickly figure out her feelings before she did?

Santana wants to know what made innocent Brittany become a stripper. Toxic had told her why but she wants Brittany to tell her. There had to be more it like why hadn't she told her that Quinn and she had become step-sisters? More importantly, why did she pretend to be dumb?

She's shaken from her thoughts by the sound of her car dining. She needs to put gas into her car. She pulls into the parking lot and pops in her debit card into the gas pump. After pushing in her pin, she pulls the gas pump and pops in into her car and presses the yellow button that reads "Unleaded". She looks the pumps trigger and turns to around. As it fills the gas tank of her car, she notices Brittany's car across the street at the park. The pink unicorn decal sticker a dead giveaway. There's no other car that has it.

Hearing the clock of the fast pump, she lifts it and puts it in its corresponding place. She twists the gas cap on and closes the small side door before hopping in her car and starting the engine. She pulls pout of the parking lot and makes her way to the park.

She parks her car next to Brittany's 1971 yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Looking over, she notices the blonde is still in her car but she hasn't noticed anyone pull up next to her as she is severely immersed in the book she was reading.

Grabbing the notebook in her bag and the mask she had found this morning, she gets out of her car and walks over to the passenger of Brittany's car. Luckily, it wasn't locked. She opens it and takes a seat.

* * *

Brittany jumps up and screams out in fear and turns to look at who it was. "GOD DAMN IT SANTANA!" Relief washes over her but her heart is still beating fast and her breathing hard. She shoves the Latina who snuck into her car a bit harder than she intended to. "YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!" She said while still trying to get her heart under control.

With a pained expression on her face, Santana uses her right arm to rub the contact area.

"Oh my god, Santana. I'm so sorry." She expressed with concern.

"It's okay, Britt." She says with a smile. "I should've probably knocked."

Brittany relaxes at the mention of an old nickname. She picks up the book that flew out of her hands and puts a bookmark on the page. After closing it, she puts it in the back seat. With the book put away, Brittany gives her undecided attention to Santana. As she does so, she notices the notebook and masks on Santana's lap.

She looks up to Santana and their eyes lock and she swallows at the implication of what's about to happen.

Santana knows now. She knows that she is Toxic. That everything she shared with Toxic, she had also, unknowingly, shared with Brittany. All those talked about hating to pretend to be someone she wasn't just so she could be popular. Dating those guys just so Quinn didn't know she was gay. Her crush on her nerdy self. The strong feelings for Toxic. All the pet names and promises that were made. The kiss they shared.

She's unsure of how Santana is going to react. What would she say? Would she still want to be with her? Could she give up her popularity status to be with her or would Santana feel so betrayed that she goes farther back into the closet?

* * *

Santana couldn't stop the butterfly feelings in her stomach or the quickening beat of her heart. This girl in front of her. She was perfect. Her hair was a golden blonde. It appeared more gold as the sun shone on it at this current moment. Her eyes are bluer than the sky above them. Her skin was pale but the sun-kissed just perfectly. And her lips. Santana licked her own as she stared at the pink ones she wanted to feel on her own. Breaking her stare, she notices Brittany's eyes staring at the items in her lap. They quickly found hers again.

"So" She starts off. "I believe," she says picking up the items and holding one in each hand and up near her face" these" she hands the items back to the blonde "are yours."

"Yeah" Brittany whispers out before biting her lips.

"I.." She's unsure of what to say. She feels so small. "I have so many questions to ask. But first" She looks away to stops and breathes out heavily to calm her nerves. "Can...Can I hold your hand?"

Brittany flashes her the cutest smile she's ever seen. She reaches over and takes Santana's hand into her own. Her eyes closed and she smiles. She hopes Brittany feels it too. The buzzing. The electricity. The connection. She's just so happy. Happy like the girl in from of her. She feels she the butterflies in her stomach might just make her float away. She understands it now. The feelings people talk about when they're in love. Powerful and addicting. Brittany was her favorite drug. She tightens her grip on the hand just to make sure this moment is real. She feels like a little school girl. Her insides are squealing in glee.

She opens her eyes and stares at their hands. Santana takes her other hand and places it on the pair of intertwines hands. "That feels amazing."

Her brown eyes turn to look, Brittany. Her smile growing as she sees the smile that is as big as hers. She shakes her head at her unable to handle how cute Brittany looks right at this moment.

"Okay. Now that the awkwardness is gone. Britt, I don't even know where to start." She reveals honestly.

"Let's start with why you messaged me," Brittany says as she smirks and her blue eyes look up to the right at no particular think. " or my alter ego, Toxic?" She says as her eyebrows go up in a flirtatious manner.

At that moment, it's like Toxic and grown-up Brittany merged into one. She wonders for a moment if this was one of those changes in her friend she didn't know about because she hasn't really interacted with the blonde other than the times she and Quinn gave her a hard time at school. She decides to not think about it too much. Whatever it is, Santana likes this flirty, confident Brittany in front of her.

"I'm pretty sure I revealed that in my first message." She teases enjoying the blush that creeps onto Brittany's cheeks. "but while we're on this topic, why do you..?" She stops unable to say the word.

"Strip?" Brittany finishes for her. Santana sees her smirk again. "It's okay. You can say it. It doesn't make it any less true."

Santana watches as the blonde woman thinks of a way to respond. She squeezes her hand to let her know that she's here.

"You know, from our messages, that I started when I was 16. My father, he used to own a few businesses. He had lots of properties he inherited and owned." Santana nods remembering this conversation. "Growing up, he had always told me that there was a piece of property that he was going to turn into a dance studio for when I became a star." Santana feels her heart tighten as Brittany's smile falters. "I always want to become a dancer. It's been my dream since I was a little girl. I don't care about being famous. I just, I want to dance." She sighs and tries to be strong as tears that build up around her Brittany's eyes.

"I know," Santana says softly. Brittany had told her this as Toxic too. "You were always dancing as a kid. It was beautiful. I always thought so." She admitted for the first time.

Brittany nodded and smiled despite her sadness.

"When I was 10, my father died." Her voice cracks and her eyes shut tight.

Despite having also heard this, Santana feels her heartbreaking. Brittany never told her. She'd only found out the truth an hour ago. Lifting her hands, she carefully places it on the pale cheek. Relishing for a moment how soft the skin under it is. Her thumb wipes the tears that have fallen onto her right cheek. She is so concerned with how Brittany feels that she didn't notice until then, she too was crying.

"I am such a horrible person for not knowing. I was your best friend. We all were best friends and none of us knew. I am so, so sorry Britt."

"It's not your fault. Judy didn't want anybody to know. And I…I was so busy. Its why I couldn't hang out with you all back then after he passed."

The brunette lets the new pieces of information sink in. Quinn was moved quickly into believing that Brittany didn't like her. The less Brittany hung out with her and the rest of their friends, the more Quinn would tease all Sam and anyone who she didn't deem cool enough to hang out with them. Little by little, Quinn made her choose things that would make them popular like trying out for Cheerios and making her believe that popularity was important to not getting bullied. She lost sight of herself without knowing it and never talked to Brittany again.

She regrets letting it happen because Santana never even knew what was really happening. It must have been awful to feel with the loss of her father all alone. Santana's heart is breaking so much for the girl in from of her.

Santana wants to kiss the tears falling from her eyes but she settles for wiping them away. She wants to take the vulnerable girl and wrap her arms around her.

"I don't like that woman. I think a downright evil bitch."

Brittany's hands wrap around the thin wrist needing to feel more of the shorter girls touch. "She is. She turned the building into a strip club." Her voice was angry. "She turned my dance studio into a strip club."

"Is that how you got into stripping?"

"No. Sort of. I was foolish to tell Judy my dreams of what I wanted to do after high school. Big mistake. She said we didn't have the money and that I should dance for it. She said it would make for good practice."

Santana feels her jaw clench. Her hatred for the older Fabray growing with an intense fury.

"Why didn't you tell anyone? You were underaged then."

"Where was I gonna go?"

"You've could have come to me. I would've helped you out."

* * *

Brittany rolls her eyes and removes Santana's hands from her face before placing Santana's hands on the other girl's lap. She positions herself so sitting Indian style and her back towards the door of her car. She felt the need to create some space between them.

She instantly misses the contact.

"We weren't exactly friends." She says with some spunk. "We still aren't friends." She reminds the Latina. "You told me that just the other day. I mean let's be honest San. You've seen how Quinn and everyone else treats me." She rests her head on the glass window behind her."

Blue eyes notice the guilt and regret in Santana.

"But you're so much better than everyone. If you just let them see how awesome you are. You're fucking smart. Funny. Beautiful. Sexy. I know this isn't the moment but my god Brittany you've got one hell of a body. Seriously, why do you let people do that to you?"

Brittany doesn't answer.

"Quinn's jealous of you. I didn't notice until the other day. You are so much better than everyone in Lima, Britt. I swear." Santana said with a smile.

"Well duh," Brittany says confidently. It's not something she wasn't aware of. "I only hide my awesomeness because Judy doesn't want me to outshine her. She's always pushed Quinn to be meaner to me. To show me my place."

"It still isn't nice. Quinn is such a bitch. I love that girl and I care about her but she is a bitch. And she's your step-sister? How? Since when?"

"Since we were 7. We never told anyone because we didn't feel we needed too. We were all friends by then. I kind of just assumed everyone knew."

"Clearly, that assumption was wrong. I am sure you know that. So, why not mention it once she started being mean?"

"So she could be meaner? No. Besides, after my father died, Judy stopped being my mother and Quinn, she was forced to be mean to me."

* * *

Santana's eyes furrowed in confusion.

"Forced to be mean?" She questioned needing more information.

"Judy, she was acting weird after my father died. She had us both come downstairs after my father's funeral and she made her tell me something mean. That's how it all started. Quinn being mean, me pretending to be stupid. Judy wanted Quinn to be mean to me and so she was."

Santana grinds her teeth at the revelation.

"Fucking Judy. I hate her. Did you know she slept with Noah?"

"Well, Judy has been acting weird again. Hate to say it but I'm not surprised."

If it wasn't surprising to Brittany then shit must have been pretty bad for a long time. She feels even more guilty.

"I'm a terrible friend. I didn't know my best friend's father had died, I didn't know my two best-friends were step-sisters. I couldn't tell Quinn was jealous sooner. I never knew about Judy forcing Quinn to be mean to you. I'm so fucking stupid."

Dumb. Its how she felt. How the fuck does one person not notice these things? She had to be stupid to not notice these things. Aren't best friends supposed to be able to sense these things? Frustrated, she lets out a loud grunt. She throws her head back and looks at the roof of the car.

She feels Brittany's right hand take hold of her left hand. She closes her eyes as she uses her thumb to caress the soft skin of the hand holding her own. She wants to confess her feelings. To tell her side of why she's been so awful.

"It's not your fault. Judy is very careful about what people know about us. She doesn't like people coming over, people calling our house phone, or people taking pictures of her. Quinn only follows whatever her mom tells her to do. Me, well, I just want to get through high school and get the fuck out of that house. It's crazy that I want to leave so bad. That house belonged to my mother. It was supposed to be left to me but when my father died, he left it to her. I have nothing here. Lima isn't home to me. It hasn't been for a long time."

"You have me." She says softly.

"Do I? Because I've been here. I haven't changed. I am still the same girl I was back then. I still dance every time I can. I laugh at Sam's terrible impersonations just because I'm his friend. I still believe in magic. I didn't leave you or Quinn or Noah or Mike. You changed. You and all of them. Do I have you? From what I can tell, I don't. Apart from Kurt and Blaine, the Glee club and dance is all I have."

"I LOVE YOU OKAY!" Santana couldn't help it. The feeling was bubbling inside her. Slowly building up. Everything she'd been going through since she realized she felt that way about the blond girl. Tears fall from her face as she looks at the beautiful blonde who is in disbelief. She feels the other woman squeezing her hand a little tighter wanting her to tell her more.

"I was 11 when I realized that the feelings I had for you were not normal. I was scared. I didn't know what any of it meant." She says as she cries remembering the horrible feeling of isolation she felt trapped in. "What's worse is that I didn't feel that way about anyone. Even now. Not one single person can make me feel this way. Not one." She pauses and rolls her eyes at how cliche she sounds. "This whole thing with Toxic. There was always this feeling in the back of my head that made me feel like it was you all along but I wanted so desperately to believe it wasn't because…" She wipes the tears from her face. Its no use because of more fall anyway. "because I don't deserve you." She takes both of her lips into her mouth before she releases them and sighs. "I am an awful, shitty person. To just stand there as people say and do awful things to you." She shakes her head. "Just the other day, I threw a slushy in your face Britt." She points to herself. "I did that. I knew how I felt and I still did it. I am such a bitch." Her eyes closed as she finishes. Forcing the remains water in her eyes to fall from her face. She feels so awful.

* * *

The car moves as Brittany shifts onto her knees. She lifts herself and leans over and brings her hands to wipe Santana's tears away. She keeps her hands there. Her thumb caressing her cheeks before she pulls her closer and places a tender kiss on her forehead. She lets her lips rest there before she pulls back. Keeping her face near Santana's she as whispers. "Say it again."

Santana looks at her confused as she's pulled out of her trance. She can still feel Brittany's lips on her forehead. The hands caressing her cheek causing her nervous system to go haywire. She's dizzy and she hasn't even been kissed yet. "What?" Her confused scrunchy face looks all kinds of adorable.

"Say it again," Brittany demanded once more with a soft voice. "Please"

Santana just looks at her in disbelief. How can this girl be so forgiving? Brittany noticed how confused the girl was.

"If how you were with me as Toxic is anything to go by" she says with a smile. "babe" she added with a wink "then you are amazing. Okay, yes, you are a bitch." She giggles as Santana's mouth goes agape at the use of foul language. "Yes, you did throw a slushy at me. Yes, you're an awful person, when you want to be." She says with a playful tone in her voice letting her know she doesn't mean to offend.

"Thanks, Britt. You sure know how to make a girl feel better." She said sarcastically as she shifts in her seat to face Brittany's direction more.

"Buuuut" Brittany said with a smile grabbing both of Santana's hands and holding them.

"Oh, thank god there's a but. That's good." She chuckled out nervously licking her lips.

"You are also the softest, sweetest, most sincere person that I know. You're just like the Santana I knew all those years ago. There's this new side of you that I've only seen glimpses of her. You're still dealing with your sexuality and I get that. Still, I know enough to know that you are an amazing person. So please, please say it again?"

Santana just looks at Brittany in our amazement. How is it that this girl can take all her crazy, tangles thoughts and make them so simple and clear?

"I love you." She says softly like it's the most honest thing she can ever say. It is.

Brittany just smiles. Hearing those words uttered to her feels a lot like Santana just woke her up from the deepest sleep. It feels like she's breathing for the first time. Like all this time she was just here. A zombie walking around Earth without purpose. Santana made her feel like a girl. Human. It feels a lot like, home. Like this is the one place she's supposed to be.

All her life, she thought the house she had grown up in was her home. She was mistaken. Her home wasn't a physical place. It was right here with Santana. Be it here in her car or anywhere just as long as Santana was with her. That's where home was. Briefly, she recalls how her father told her that home is where the heart is. He was so right.

"I love you, too," she says as she's known all her life. Part of her did. Part of her always knew she loved Santana.

They sit in the most comfortable silence for a moment just holding hands. Breathing. It feels great.

"Can I kiss you?" She hears Santana asks in the softest voice she's ever heard.

Brittany smiles. "Please do."

So, she does.

* * *

Santana feels the earth move in here head. All those cheesy stories she's read. Every song that talked about love that she's ever heard. Those romantic movies she's seen. They all made sense now. She smiles into the kiss.

This kiss felt like coming home.

She moans into the kiss as Brittany pulls her in. Santana's hold on Brittany's waiste tightens as the blonde's hands tangle in her hair. She's right where she was meant to be all this time. She's willing to let her popularity go for this girl.


	7. Judy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains mentions of murder, abuse, and blood. There are also references to mental illness. The next couple of chapters from here on out are dark. Just like Cinderella, it will end with the main characters being happily ever after.
> 
> Also, thanks for reading. This idea hit me one day. I was feeling this modern take on something traditional. Plus, it allowed me to explore horror, crime, and characters with mental illness. It was my first serious attempt at a multi-chapter story 
> 
> I am a novice. I have only been writing for 3 months. So the follows and views mean the world to me. I put a lot of effort into this. I truly appreciate every one of you:)

Everyone has skeletons in their closet. People have secrets that sometimes are too dark to share. Some people get to live in paradise while others live in hell. Misery loves company. Judy never likes it. She preferred being alone. She often compared herself to a black widow. Since she was a little girl, they were always her favorite.

Growing up, her parents were strict They were also the most hypocritical people on the face of the Earth. To everyone in their hometown, they were the perfect family. Always together. Always happy. They'd volunteer at community events. Say grace before every meal. Attend church every Sunday. When they were alone, however, they didn't have to pretend.

Judy was an accident. Her father always told her that. Her real mother had been a prostitute. She was left at her father's doorstep when she was born. Some would say she was lucky that her father took her in without question, but they didn't know the truth. Her father, having become a master of deceit, thanks to his charming good looks, was the cruelest man she'd ever known.

You see, her father wasn't normal. At a very young age, Judy knew never to interrupt her father or speak up unless spoken too. She'd seen too many women get beaten at the hands of her father. Father. Ugh. She hated to peer to him like that. He didn't deserve the title.

The gut-wrenching screams he provoked from women. They are louder and scarier as she is up. As she got older, she started to notice things. All those women that'd come to play house because her father made them, they never came back.

She remembers at age 12 when it made sense. She understood why that was. She found out one night when she was in the basement looking for a ball to play with. Her father always wanted her out of the house. After school, she was to do her homework at the library and then come home and play outside until it got dark. That day, she simply wanted a ball to play with. All the kids wanted to play baseball and she finally got picked to play. Something that never happened because all the kids didn't like her. For some reason, she felt like playing for the first time. It's when she saw it. His collection.

On the wall of their basement, were pictures of women. They all looked the same. Young with blonde hair, and pale skin. Each photo had a locket of hair and a red dot. She didn't think anything of it at first and then she saw her. A woman. Naked on her father's workshop table. Her eyes clothes and her skin pale. Blood dripping from her arm and into a bucket. Panicked and scared she ran out of the basement. She never told anyone what she saw. It wasn't hard to keep to herself. No one talked to her.

When she was 12, her father bought home women that looked different than any there woman he had bought home. The two would get married. Judy would find out just how perfect he and the woman were for each other. She was one twisted bitch herself. Unlike her father, who would spare Judy from seeing his violent actions, she did it in front of her.

She cried at first. She'd never seen anyone take their last breath in from of her. She vomited at the sight of blood. Fainted when it was over. One death turned into, three, and then six. More and more. She'd lost count at 12. She'd become desensitized to it all.

She'd hear about the numerous missing woman from the area. She'd seen the posters. They'd been mentioned on the radio and television. Her father and step-mother weren't nervous. With time. She grew not to be too.

When she reached high school, she didn't have a boyfriend. It wasn't because she wasn't attractive. It wasn't because she wasn't nice. It was because she didn't know how to show affection. After all, she hadn't known what that was.

Lonely, she grew to like black widows. She is fascinated by them. They looked beautiful and yet they lived alone. She'd seen how the eight-legged creature would mate and then kill their partner. A dangerous thing for her to witness as a child with a predisposition to mental health issues.

When she was 18, she met a guy. She charmed him. She had to pretend to feel a connection with him though she felt none. Years of pretending to be something she wasn't thanks to her father and step-mother, it was easy. He fell in love with her. Pretending to be the good Christian woman she pretended to be, she didn't have sex until she was 22 when they got married. She waited to get pregnant before she poisoned him. She only needed him for his money, the life insurance policy, and the baby she wanted.

With her skills of deceit, no one suspected the untimely death. They felt sorry for her.

She felt pain and loss for the first time when she lost the baby to a miscarriage. She moved away from her hometown and waited a year before she started dating again.

He was a kind man. Richer than her former husband. Easier to enamor too. It only took 4 weeks before he proposed. His parents had died some years earlier and he was lonely. All Judy saw were dollar signs. Much like she had done a year prior, she married him and joined him as soon as she got pregnant.

For the second time, no one suspected anything. Once she got the insurance payout and the money for the property she left.

Behavior specialist and psychologist would say that she was having a cooling-off period. Perhaps they were right, she's not sure. All she knows is that for some years, she focused solely on raising Quinn. For that time she had genuinely been happy.

It crept up on her. The urge to kill again. She craved it like water. The times had changed though. Technology was everywhere. She needed to find a quiet place. One where she'd be able to leave from and not be missed. She found herself and her toddler in Lima, Ohio.

Quinn loved it here. She didn't. She did, however, find her next victim. Instead of leaving. She worked her magic instead.

He was wary at first. Too protective of his heart and his little girl, Brittany. Like the previous lovers she had, he eventually fell for her. He loved that both of their daughters became the best of friends. Quinn had grown so fond of Brittany's friends. She was particularly close to Santana. He fell so in love that he proposed. They got married and he adopted Quinn. Everything was good.

They tried for 3 years to have children. Both their daughters were 10 years old and they were unable to conceive a child. She found out she couldn't have any more children. She decided to poison him slowly, little by little until one day he had a heart attack.

With his age, she got lucky. He fell into a coma. He wouldn't make it. She would've been elated but she wasn't. Richard Pierce had outsmarted her. His fortune was left to his only daughter, Brittany. He'd been kind enough to leave Quinn money for college and a downpayment on a house when she was old enough but that was it.

She illegally changed all the documents to her name. She didn't have any issues forging his signature. Shortly after, he died.

She'd gotten his fortune, but now she had Brittany. She didn't care for her. She'd only pretended to. She remembers how her step-mother treated her when she was younger. She didn't understand how or why she mimicked many of the behaviors the woman did.

The craving to kill was becoming too strong again. She couldn't do it though. She tried to tame the urges. She'd gone to a therapist and used her deceitful skills to make him believe she was just having anxiety. She never told him about the dark stuff. She never mentioned her past. He prescribed her pills.

She'd forced Brittany to do chores. Working here as she was a slave. Breaking her spirit and robbing all the joy she had. She'd force her daughter to do the same. Her daughter hated it at first but, soon, she grew to do it as if it were second nature.

Her daughter was going to be better than Brittany. She was going to be smarter, prettier, and more talented even if it was all pretending. They forced Brittany to not wear makeup, to pretend to be stupid and to hide her talents. To break her seemingly endless hope of having the right future, Judy turned the would-be dancer's dance studio into a strip club. When she mentioned she wanted to go to Juilliard, they told her they wouldn't be able to afford it. To degrade her, Judy made her become a stripper.

The pills stopped working. She couldn't control the urge to want to kill again. To justify it, her modus operandi changed. She couldn't get pregnant and so her brain rationalized that she didn't need to marry anyone anymore. Her next victim, Noah Puckerman. Her daughter's best friend's boyfriend.

After talking to him in a very, very suggestive manner, he was a total sucker. Putty in her hands. His teenage mind being far too easy to manipulate. She let him believe that she liked being dominated. That he could ask her anything and she'd do it. She added his name onto the entrance list to Sin City. Little favors here and there. She knew he was testing the waters to see how much he could ask for before it crossed the line. Alcohol for a party. Money. Material things here and there. A few nights ago, he had come to her with a hard-on. He knew Quinn was with his girlfriend Santana and so the house was empty. She had answered the door didn't say anything. Still believing Judy was submissive to him, he unbuttoned his pants and unzipped his pants before he pulled his hard member out. She smirked and dropped to her knees and began to put her plan into action. The boy turned to putty in her hands.

Had her daughter not come home, Noah Puckerman would be dead right now. She rolls her eyes at the missed opportunity as she watches Quinn come into the kitchen.

She had to play nice. Pretend everything was normal. She'd have another opportunity to kill again and soon but not right now. Right now, she was on damage control. Quinn had no idea of her past or any of her plans. She had to keep it that way. Quinn was, after all, the only person she truly loved.

"I'm sorry. What I did with Noah was extremely inappropriate. It won't happen again. Not with him anyway."

Quinn doesn't say anything.

"Brittany isn't here. I made sure she was gone. I just want to see you happy."

* * *

Quinn still said nothing. She ate her breakfast in silence. She's secretly battling the voices in her head that tell her she is just like her mother. She knows that what her mother did was wrong but she can't deny that, that was something she would've done. Stealing other girls' boyfriends is what she did. She hated that she did that. She hated how much like her mother she was. It wasn't healthy, she knows.

The other part of her knows her mother needs help. Her pills aren't working. She's off. Something about her mother has been off for a while. Admitting her mother needs help is to also admit that she too, needs help.

Angrily and frustrated, she throws her plate to the wall. It shatters into a million pieces. If she could express how she was feeling with an object, that would be it. She feels like she's about to explode any minute now. She's ticking. Second after second until she screams with every fiber in her being.

"WHY CAN'T I BE NORMAL?!"

She collapses into a ball and starts crying. Shaking at the anger and sadness she's feeling.

Judy doesn't comfort her. She doesn't know-how.

* * *

Brittany and Santana are all smiles. Talking about nothing and everything. Kissing sweetly here and there when the distance gets to be too much. They've talked about their dreams in the past but those conversations were over the phone through text. They want to talk about them in person.

"The scout is coming to our school in 3 weeks?" Santana asked.

"Yeah. Yes. I have this routine I'm working on. I feel pretty good about it. I'll show you sometime. "

"Hell yes! I want to see you dance. I've seen you stripping and Britt-Britt, you were amazing. I can only imagine how beautiful you'll look."

"As for my living arrangement, well, that's a not on my mind yet. I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I want to focus on my performance and nationals. Vocal Adrenaline is our biggest competition and I am doing the choreography for that too. I hate to toot my own horn, but It's coming along real nice. After tomorrow, I will be able to focus on that entirely and hopefully, we win. If I end my year with a bang, then I'd be happy."

"You know, I always wanted to join Glee Club."

"You should. You have an amazing voice?"

"Spying on me Pierce?" she teased

"Just an observation. I heard you singing in the parking lot once."

"I sound okay?"

"You sounded better than okay. Join. We'll get to spend more time together if you do."

"Say no more. I'm joining tomorrow. Any song recommendations?"

"Valerie by Amy Winehouse. I think your voice is perfect."

Brittany looks at the time. It's 10. Kurt must be at Sin City now with Blaine and some of the prep crew. Judy is at home with Quinn. She won't be stopping by. She could totally show

Santana her routine. They arrange for Santana to follow her so that her car won't be left at the park. Brittany got there first. She greets her with a kiss and they walk in holding hands. Kurt sees them walking in. Brittany hugs him.

"The feisty Latina is here once again. Long-time no sees." He says as he pulls away.

"Santana, that's my name." She says extending her hand for him to shake it.

"Kurt. So, I take it you finally found your Cinderella."

"Yes"

Brittany gives Kurt the stink eye. She doesn't like that he is making Santana feel uncomfortable but Kurt is like her dad. He's acting like any father would when meeting his daughter's first potential partner.

"Kurt, stop. Please, this is all fresh and I just wanted to show Santana my routine for my the Juilliard scout. We'll be in the back dance room." She says as she takes Santana by the hand and guides her to the back.

"Use protection!" He yells at the retreating girls

"Stop embarrassing me!" He hears Britt call back.

He smiles and goes back to continue doing his work. He lets Blaine know that Santana finally knows that Brittany is Toxic. They smile at each other. It's Brittany's first crush. It's entirely too cute.

Santana sits criss-cross apple sauce on the wooden floor. Her back lax against the mirrored wall. She watches with adoration the girl in front of her as she sets up her music.

"Sit there and look pretty as I show you my best moves."

She hears the song start.

Watching Brittney dance is a privilege. The way her body moves fluidly as she jumps, skips, twists and bends her body creating beautiful lines and beautiful visuals. Santana thinks this is contemporary. Brittany had shared many videos with her as Toxic. It was her favorite dance style.

Santana loves the way the other girl can tell a story with her body to the lyrics of the song. Her face showed emotion. Brittany's dancing was live art. In the back of her mind, she promises that she will help Brittany her into Juilliard if she had financial issues. Brittany was meant to be a dancer.

"Wow," she breathes as she watches her dance.

By the end of the song, Brittany is breathing hard. Santana stands up on her feet and quickly rushes to envelope her in a big hug.

"That was amazing, Britt! I didn't know you could do that."

"Yeah, well I've been dancing forever. Dad used to let me take dance classes. After he passed. I turned to YouTube."

They stood there hugging with the music playing simply enjoying the feeling of being held by each other. Neither is sure how much time has passed. Few songs had played but they hadn't kept count. Still holding each other, Brittany was the first to speak.

"You make me happy. Since my dad's been gone, I've been feeling lonely. Judy has been acting weird and Quinn. Well, I don't need to explain Quinn. You've seen how she treats me. Judy, she's tolerable. A little weird lately but tolerable. Just as long as I do what she wants, It's fine. And I know I have some friends from Glee that are really good to me. But that's-"

Santana kisses her softly on the lips to stop her from talking before pulling away.

"You're cute when you're rambling. You don't have to explain. I know exactly what you mean."

Brittany just smiles and kisses her again.

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

Santana would never admit to anyone but Brittany(and still in total privacy) that she enjoys the Glee club. It was the best part of her day. Singing and watching Brittany dance and since we're her easily her favorite things to do. Her secret girlfriend was crazy talented and super hot. She had always thought Brittany was that hottest girl in school but seeing Brittany in her element, that made her a hundred times hotter.

Santana looked at the table where Quinn sat with the rest of the popular crowd. Quinn forbade her from sitting with the squad as long as she was in Glee. Something that Quinn was not okay with at all. Normally, Santana would easily follow the captain's orders in fear of Quinn's bitchy attitude but Quinn's been weird ever since the morning where Quinn practically told her who Toxic was. She tried talking to her about joining the club before she did bit Quinn wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. She stayed cooped up in her house.

When she told Quinn that she joined the Glee club, Quinn was originally happy and telling her that she deserved a place to share her talent. Then the next day, she did a total 180 and told her to choose between Glee or popularity. The choice was clear and Quinn hated it. Truth be told, as bitchy and rude as the girl was, Santana misses her best friend. She needs someone to talk to that isn't Brittany about the feelings she's experiencing for the first time. Because despite how downright evil Quinn is, deep, deep(and we're talking deep) in her, there's this really sweet girl whom Santana has only met a handful of times.

Brittany has been telling her that Quinn hasn't been mean to her at home. That Quinn has been in her room a lot and Judy isn't doing much better. It's so sad at her house that Brittany is happy, for once, to have long hours at Sin City. It's her distraction. Quinn doesn't have that. Apart from Cheer's practice, she hasn't got much to do and she has refused to do anything outside of school. Santana's worried for the other girl. Brittany notices how Santana keeps looking at her table. She's been doing it all week. Brittany, sneakily as a ninja, wraps her pinky around Santana's. Santana looks at Brittany and they have a silent conversation with their eyes. Santana nods and makes her way over to the cheering table.

* * *

Quinn greets her with cold eyes and her fake, condescending smile gone. "I haven't asked anyone to slushy you. Don't make me change my mind. Go hang out with your loser friends." She tells Santana.

"You're my best friend too, Quinn. Can't we just talk?"

Quinn wants to. She needs someone to talk to about what's been going on at home. She is freaking the hell out over how she's feeling but more so how her mom is acting. It isn't normal. Her mother was becoming someone she doesn't recognize. To make matters worse, she feels like she's losing her mind. It's freaking terrifying. So crippling. The anger she has inside. Anger that has controlled her life and her actions. She wants to talk to Santana about it. Surely, her best friend would know what to do.

"Okay. Let's find someplace quiet." She whispers despite her brain telling her to lash out at the tan girl.

She leads the way and Santana follows. The crowd of people spread to make way as the two girls make their way out of the cafeteria and down the hallway in place of someplace quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Faberry is going to meet soon.


	8. Mike

Playing football was not something that Mike Chang liked to do. His father made him pick up the sport to increase his chances of getting into an Ivy League school. Mike had been told his whole life that he should be a lawyer like his father. Mike hated that. He didn't want to become a lawyer and he didn't want to play football. He also hated being part of the academic decathlon club. He hated it all. He did, however, love dancing.

All he wanted to do was dance. Dance was something he enjoyed doing. He would have joined the glee club just to be able to dance but he had no time available with his busy school schedule as it is. Plus, as much as he wanted to dance and as much as he hated the future planned for him, he would never disregard his father's wishes.

He remembers the night he met Judy Fabray. He was at a ball with his parents. His father was always more relaxed in social settings. When the music started playing, Mike found himself on the dance floor. Several of the young girls there wanted to dance with him. Never too shy to dance, he danced with all of them.

Judy had seen him dance all night. She had managed to convince her father to allow him to teach dance to her. Finally, being able to dance, Mike agreed.

"We'll have our last lesson this Friday. I think I've learned a lot from you, Mike. We'll have dinner and then I will pay you the agreed amount."

"With one last dance, Mrs. Fabray?"

"Of course." She answered.

Poor Mike had no idea how true that statement was. Judy smiled looking at her future victim. It was only a matter of days.

She guided the handsome young man to the door. It was a Sunday night and his father expected him to be home by 7. Quinn wasn't home and Brittany was a work. She'd seen him dancing with the girls. She convinced his father to let him give her lessons. She arranged the lessons to be on the days her daughter and Brittany wouldn't be home. They had no idea about their meetings.

* * *

Santana and Quinn were talking in the Latina's room. Quinn had called her in a panic rambling and making no sense at all but rushed over to her best friend's house. Santana has been watching Quinn as she paced back and forth in her room not saying anything. It was starting to freak Santana out.

"Quinn, you've been here for 10 minutes and you haven't said a word. What's going on?" She asked with a voice full of concern.

"Remember, our conversation from last week? The one we had under the bleachers?"

Santana nodded. Of course, she remembered.

* * *

_Quinn and Santana walk outdoors and under the bleachers. No one was around and no one would find them. _

_"_ _So, what's going on?" Santana asked, curious to see what was up with her best friend._

_"_ _I don't even know where to start."_

_"_ _Start with what's on your mind right now."_

_"_ _I've missed you," Quinn says honestly._

_"_ _Me too. I hope you're not mad about me choosing glee."_

_"_ _No, I know you're in there cause of Brittany." _

_Santana blushes._

_"_ _I know you have feelings for her. If I'm honest, she's a great catch." She smiles _

_"_ _You're jealous of her." _

_Quinn nodded, "She got the girl I'd been pinning on for a while now." She confesses._

_Santana looks at her shocked. She had no idea Quinn had feelings for her. _

_"_ _Oh." Unsure of what else to say._

_"_ _Yeah. Don't worry though. I knew you'd never feel the same and with everything that's happened, I have accepted that. Plus, I think I might be rushing on someone else." She says with a sad smile._

_"_ _That's good. Who?" She teases. She's genuinely interested in knowing not sure if its a boy or a girl. _

_"_ _Not ready to tell you yet. There's just too much going on in my head. She is actually the reason I want to change for."_

_Santana decides to drop her curiosity in knowing who Quinn likes now but wants to know what is going on with her friend._

_"_ _What's happening?" She asks. _

_Quinn begins to cry. Santana's not used to seeing her friend cry like this. It's sudden but she's full-on crying her eyes out and Santana just hugs her. She's pretty sure there's snot and tears all over her left shoulder but she doesn't care. Her friend is hurting right now._

_"_ _I think I'm going crazy." She whispers out through sobs. _

_Santana just rubs her back soothingly. She doesn't say a word and just lets her friend cry and speak whatever is on her mind. _

_"_ _I hear these voices in my head. They're bitchy. So, bitchy and angry. I try to shut them up but they're getting too hard to ignore. I'm so tired. San. I just want them to stop."_

_"_ _Oh, Quinn." She says crying too. _

_"_ _I want…I want to be normal. I want to be nice too, you know. Not be this bitchy, angry person that comes out when the voices win."_

_Santana squeezes her a little tighter as if the gesture could help hold her together. _

_"_ _My mom. She's sick, San. The pills she hasn't isn't working. She isn't like herself. I haven't seen her like this in years. Not since Britt's dad died."_

_Santana listens more intently at the mention of her girlfriend. _

_"_ _She turned so mean. She forced me to be mean to Brittany. I drilled it into my head that we had to treat her differently. That she wasn't part of our family. That it's just me and her. And I let her win. I let her win. I-"_

_Quinn cries harder. She'd even began to have hiccups. _

_"_ _I've been so awful to B."_

_"_ _It's okay, Quinn. It'll be okay."_

_"_ _No. She's always been nice. I'm just a jealous little girl."_

_"_ _She'll understand if you talk to her. I know it."_

_Quinn pushes Santana back. The quick change in behavior shocks Santana and it takes her a moment to react._

_"_ _THAT'S JUST IT, SANTANA! I DON'T KNOW HOW!"_

_She falls on to her knees harshly ignoring the sting of the gravel and girt cutting her knees. _

_"_ _I don't know how to control feelings or how to act like a normal person. My mother never taught me that. What if I am sick like her?" _

_The way she sounds. So broken and tired. It breaks Santana's heart into a million more pieces. She's not sure how to help Quinn. She's not sure that she can._

_"_ _You're not anything like your mom, Quinn. You might have some things you need to work through but I know you. You are not like her. You are a good person. We'll find someone to talk to. You'll be okay. I promise."_

* * *

"My mother wasn't home and being the awful person that I am, I went through some of her things," Quinn says as she pulls out the documents she found out of her backpack.

Santana looks at it confused. Reading them. Her eyes open at what they say and the names are written on them. Her eyes shifting through the words on the documentation Quinn showed her.

"These are death certificates. Wills giving your mom inheritances from these men. Quinn, where did you find these?" She kept flipping through them to ensure she was reading them correctly.

"That doesn't matter. My mom was married before. Three prior times in her life. Don't you find it at least a bit suspicious that she's moved 2 prior times?"

"You don't think-"

Quinn grabs one of the death certificates. Crumbling it slightly in her fist and shoves it in front of Santana's face.

"THIS WAS MY FATHER!"

Santana takes it from her hand and out of her face to read the name more clearly.

"She told me he had left her for some tattooed _slut._" Quinn was so angry and hurt. Shea pacing around the room again.

Santana tried her best to rationalize the information in from of her and that of which was mentioned to her about Judy's behavior.

"She _lied_ to me and I have been angry at him for leaving." She stops moving around and angrily yells out, "HE HAS BEEN DEAD ALL THIS TIME!"

Quinn walks over and grabs the sonogram from the bed where Santana had put the other documents. She holds it in from of her showing it to Santana. "My mother got pregnant during her first marriage. The name of the father isn't here. See the date on the sonogram? It's was 18 weeks into the pregnancy. The death and sonogram are both 18 weeks into the marriage.

Santana looks at the sonogram and realizes Quinn is right.

"She moved and married my father a year later. He died 18 weeks later, too." She says as she shows Santana the dates and she confirms that information again. Clearly, Quinn had spent time looking at these before she came over.

"She moved to Lima after getting the inheritance and selling the house," Santana says beating Quinn before she revealed the information.

"Everything was good here. It was just me and my mom. Nothing weird happened. I have never met any of our family members. It was her and I until she married Britt's dad. You know what happened to him."

Santana nods, "He died." It's all making sense to Santana. It couldn't be.

"This isn't a coincidence. It can't be." Quinn says as she once again starts to pace.

Santana immediately gets up and hugs her friend.

"It was the only time where I was truly happy. He was so good to me. Having him and Britt in my life as a family. It was so good for me. I think that's the only reason why I am a decent person some of the time." Quinn says solemnly.

Quinn pulls away from Santana's embrace and wipes her tears. "I need to find out who these men were and how they died. I have names. We can Google them. See if there are clues. I didn't want to do it alone."

"Okay."

Santana gets her MacBook Pro and sits on the bed. Quinn sits next to her. Santana logs in and opens the browser before giving the computer over to Quinn. Santana looks at the oldest document and tells Quinn what to search.

"Joseph McGuire, South Carolina."

Quinn types in the name and hits enter. She goes through some of the search results before she stumbles on a newspaper archive. She reads it aloud to Santana.

"There isn't much here. Just that my mother was expecting a child and that she lost her husband. Cause of death was never investigated."

Santana read the next name and state.

"Louis Quincy Anderson, Kentucky"

Quinn typed her father's name and the state in which Quinn and Judy moved from when she was still a baby. This time she hesitated.

"Its okay, Quinn. I'm right here."

She nods before she hits the enter key and releases a breath as the page loaded before releasing it as the results popped up.

She found a news article and like the previous death, it was not investigated.

"There's only one more name. Britt's dad. We don't need to search for it. He died from a heart attack. We know it wasn't investigated. He left everything to my mom and left some money for me."

Santana knows that's not right. He had always told Brittany that the building currently being used as Sin City was supposed to be her dance studio. It didn't make any sense that Quinn would get something but Brittany didn't.

"Can I see Richard's will?"

Santana notices how there were changes made to the will while Richard Pierce was in the hospital in a coma from a heart attack.

"Quinn, was your mom acting weird in the weeks surrounding Richard's death?" Santana asked

"I don't remember. Everything was much better then. I was hanging out with you and our group of friends. I was really happy then. When he had a heart attack at dinner, that's when everything turned for the worst."

Santana tried to think of what could've happened. All these sudden deaths after marriage and all fo these inheritances.

"I know you think something here doesn't add up. There are too many similarities here."

"So, what do we do now?" Santana questioned.

Quinn looks at the right-hand corner on the screen to look at the time.

"She's not home at this time. Maybe we can go to my house and see if other things can help us?"

"I really think we're going in way over our heads. I'm doing to copy all these documents and print these articles out and drop them off with Officer Evans. I'll tell him to look into it."

"Then we'll go to my house?"

"Then we'll go to your house. We need to put those papers back and if she comes home, we are coming back here. Deal?"

"Deal."

* * *

Brittany was working tonight. Ever since her relationship with Brittany, working at Sin City had become harder. She hates the fact that all these men get to see her naked. She sort of wished that Santana could have seen her naked in a different setting when she'd come to Sin City. She can't go back in time and undo that instead, she was talking to Kurt about this possibly being the last time she worked here. If her performance went well and the scouting agent gave her a full scholarship, she wouldn't have to work anymore.

"Britt, I am here because you're here. If you leave, I leave."

"We can easily get a job somewhere else. We're thinking of opening a gay club. We think it'll be good. Lima could use one. Having to drive to the next town for some fun in a safe place is ridiculous."

Kurt's phone goes off and he reads the message instantly.

"Judy is here. Let's get back to work."

"One more week" Brittany whispered to herself as she finished her make up.

* * *

Santana and Quinn are at the Fabray house. As discussed, Quinn put the papers back where she had found them while Santana looked at the prescription labels on the orange pill bottles in the bathroom. Using her phone, she takes pictures of the labels. She and Quinn will have to look up what they are for and what the side effects are.

They are about to enter the basement when they hear a knock at the door. Quinn and Santana look at each other.

"Who the heck would be visiting?" Quinn thought aloud.

She opens the door and is surprised to see Mike.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hi to you too. Quinn."

"Is there a reason you're here, Chang?" Santana asked.

"I seem to have forgotten my jacket. It's in the living room." He explains.

"Why is your jacket here?" She asked as Santana retrieved it.

"Oh! Your mom didn't tell you?"

Santana and Quinn, somewhat aware of Judy's past and the fact that Puck was here not too long ago, looked at each other.

"I'm giving your mom dance lessons. Friday is our last lesson. She's a great dancer, Quinn. You definitely take after your mom."

Santana winced. That was the worst thing he could have said. She gave him his jacket.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" She yelled at him before slamming the door.

Santana waits a moment as Quinn regains her composure.

"First, Puck and now Mike. Why is my mom inviting young men to the house all of a sudden?"

"I'm sure we'll figure it out."

"Let's go check out that basement."

The two best friends look at the stuff in the garage. Nothing is out of place. Everything is organized. It's a dead end. They aren't closer to finding out about Judy's past. Officer Sam had told the girls he'd look into it but there was no way of really knowing if they would find anything.

"You guys must have a serious infestation. Your mom could've just called Bert Hummel. He took care of our little pest problem with the aunt's last summer. Neighbors dog kept taking its food and leaving it at my doorstep for my dog Mellow."

Quinn looked at Santana with a confused look. "We don't have a pest problem."

"Really? 'Cause you guys have a lot of liquid pesticides."

It suddenly all comes together.

Quinn walks over to the bottles and reads the labels. "Look up side effects of pesticides"

Santana quickly pulls out her phone and types. She selects the top result. She reads it to herself and drops her phone in disbelief.

Quinn quickly picks it up. She reads it really quick.

"We need to get out of here. We need to get Brittany and we need to get the hell out of here." Santana says with panic. She doesn't feel safe here. If their suspicions are right, she doesn't want to be here.

They rush out of the basement just as Judy's car pulls up to the driveway.

"We need to relax. Pretend everything is normal. She's still trying to make up the whole Puck thing. She won't ask questions." Quinn says.

Santana just nods. She can't think of anything else to say. What the hell was she supposed to do right now? She's at her best friend's house. Her mother happens to be the stepmother of her current girlfriend. Turns out the woman has been married 3 times and all her husbands are dead. Yeah, she's freaked the fuck out. Quinn just went upstairs and she hopes she gets down here quickly.

Her heart is beating so hard as the knob turns. One small push and the door opens revealing Judy. She surprisingly looks calm.

"Santana, how are you? It's been a few days. I must say, I am very glad you and my daughter are friends again."

Luckily, Quinn comes downstairs just in time. She's stuffing her pajamas into her bag.

"Quinn, my dearest daughter, are you going somewhere?"

"I'm your only daughter, mother. Yes, I am spending the night at Santana's. We're putting a cheer routine together. Sue wants to see some new cheers or else we're off the squad."

"Sue is very intense. I am going to drink some wine and take a long bath. Lock the door on your way out."

She kisses Quinn on the cheek before she ascends upstairs to start he bath.

Santana releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Quinn grabs her hand and guides her out. She locks the door and they make their way to Quinn's car.

"My mom is a fucking murderer." She says.

* * *

Judy sank into the bathtub. Five more days until she can satisfy the urge to kill again. It's been seven long years since she killed Richard. She missed it. She thinks of Mike.

Poor, handsome dancer won't even see it coming.

She laughs. Her father and step-mother would be proud of the monster they created.

She's so close to killing someone again. The cooling-off period is over.


	9. Officer Evans

Brittany was sitting next to her girlfriend while Quinn, her step-sister, and bully, was in the back seat. Santana had texted her earlier while she was working. She'd gotten a messaged to call her as soon as she had and when she did, Santana was speaking so fast that Brittany didn't understand a word she said other than Judy, murderer, and poison. To say she's a little nervous in her seat is a little bit of an understatement. It doesn't help that neither of them has said anything isn't helping at all.

"Can one of you please tell me what is going on?"

Silence.

"Santana?" She asks quietly.

"I want Quinn to tell you."

"Quinn?"

"I am so, so sorry for the way I've treated you. You've always been so nice to me. Poppa Richie was nice to me too."

Brittany swallowed. She'd never heard Quinn apologize to her.

"Q" she starts but silences herself. She hadn't used the nickname since they were children. The last time she had used it was before everything went to shit. Back when Quinn and she were still on speaking terms.

"Q, you know I don't blame you for what happened to us. I was there, Q. I remember what happened. I do."

"But I should've stopped. I should-"

"Q, no. You and I both know that Judy would've made treated me way worse if you hadn't listened to her. It's not your fault."

"I did some awful shit though." She whispers.

"Q, I forgive you. For everything."

All the girls in the car are crying. None of them care about how they look.

"What is going on? Please tell me." Brittany asks wondering why all of a sudden they are having this discussion.

"I think mom is a murderer."

"Judy?"

Quinn nods.

"I found some death certificates of men she was married too. Even Poppa Richie's. All of their deaths weren't investigated but they all died shortly after getting married. 18 weeks after or so when my mom was pregnant. Your Poppa lived the longest but still, we think she poisoned him and the others."

Brittany is just shaking her head and crying refusing to believe it. "No"

Santana pulls over. There is no way that she can drive like this. Now she's got tears in her eyes and all she wants to fo is comfort her girlfriend and best friend. She gets out of the car and runs over to the passenger door to open it before doing it to the back seat door too. She pulls them both by the hand and hugs them.

They stay huddled together in a tight embrace. Three best friends coming together again all because of some twisted shit. They comfort each other for a few minutes before getting back into their car and going to Santana's

Quinn asked to take a shower to help her relax leaving Santana and Brittany alone in the tan woman's room. Santana was hugging Brittany. Learning that her father was possibly murdered stirred up old feelings that Brittany never had time to deal with. Not when Judy changed and forced Quinn to be mean to her.

They're laying in bed together cuddled up. Santana kisses her the top of her head as she holds the girl close to her chest. Brittany has been hugging her tightly. It's the most intimate embraced they've had. Quinn walks in freshly changed. Her hair wrapped in a towel. She smiles sadly at her best friend. It hurts a little to see them like this since she too had feelings for Santana but she couldn't deny that those two were meant for each other. They had found each other when they were kids. Santana catches her eyes and tells her to join them in a hug. And so she does. Slowly, she positions herself behind Brittany and holds her. Her head snuggled into her hair. She's hugged more times in the past 2 weeks than she has in years.

They fall asleep cuddling each other.

* * *

The next day is Monday and the girls all decide to arrive at school together. All eyes are on the three girls. Discovering that her mother was possibly a murderer made Quinn consider her priorities and she honestly could care less what people were saying, good or bad.

As for Santana, she had her fingers intertwined with Brittany's. She wanted everyone to know that Brittany was her girl. They hadn't stopped talking about Puck cheating on her and really, she figured it's a good a time to reveal just how over him she really is. That guy was lame anyway.

It's Rachel that first approaches them to let Brittany know that the scout has arrived and has set the schedule in from if the auditorium.

Santana kisses her before Brittany is on her way to check her time slot leaving Santana and Quinn by their lockers.

"I saw your little eyes on someone, Fabray," Santana said teasingly.

Quinn blushes. "I was totally obvious wasn't I? You can't blame me, she's hot."

Santana laugher. "Sure, if you're into hobbits."

Quinn glared at her.

"I'm kidding Q. I'll never admit to saying this but yeah she's hot. I have eyes for Brittany though. That girl is on a league of her own. She's going to blow away the scout with her dancing." She proudly boasts.

* * *

Brittany looks at the schedule on the piece of paper posted on the auditorium's door. She had hers just before lunch. Perfect. She would've been incredibly nervous to perform after lunch.

"I am nervous Rach. If I don't have what it takes?"

"Bri, I've seen you dance. I know you're good enough."

"But what if-"

"No, don't think like that. You are an amazing dancer."

Brittany just smiled. "Thanks, Rach.

The two girls grow silent as Finn passes by them. Brittany notices Rachel looks down to her feet when he attempts to lock his sad eyes with those of her friend. She wondered what was going on between them.

* * *

It was at exactly 10:36 that morning that Quinn and Brittany were called up the office. Santana hadn't heard from her two favorite blondes since then. Her text messages had gone unanswered and she was losing her nerve. She had seen two officers standing outside the principal's office. She knows Brittany has her performance at 11:20 just before lunch. She looks at her phone one more time for the time though she already knows the time because she checked it 5 minutes prior. White numbers that read 11:00 grab her attention when she touches the screen.

Brittany can't miss her audition. It's her only opportunity. She's pretty sure Principal Figgins knows this is important to her girl. She decided 10 minutes ago to retrieve her girlfriend's gym bag from her car and she had it hanging from her shoulder. She wishes they would let her out soon. She begins pacing as another minute passes. Then another.

She hears the doorknob open. Oh, thank god she thinks to herself.

"Brittany, you have to go get ready. We need to get you to the auditorium in 15 minutes. I'll help with your make up while Quinn puts your clothes in your bag."

She's on autopilot speaking frantically but she doesn't fail to see the look on both of the girl's faces. Both of them were crying in there. She looks at Officer Evans who simply nods at her.

"I need you two to pull yourself together for 30 minutes. After this, we'll leave. I'll call my mom and see if she can call the school. Please." She says to the girls.

Quinn nods. Brittany hasn't responded.

"Britt-Britt? You'll regret it if you don't. Focus on your audition and I promise we can go home and deal with it there."

* * *

Brittany knows she's right. Santana pulls her to the nearest bathroom and she lets Brittany change. Quinn gets out Brittany's makeup and Santana pulls hers out. Luckily, Santana has mastered how to put on make-up quickly. Brittany's hair was still in a bun and gelled well. They had done it this morning.

They ran down the hall and into the auditorium in time to hear her name being called.

Brittany quickly walks onto the stage with her sister and girlfriend wishing her good luck. She is waiting for the music to start and they're having trouble finding it. This could not be happening. Ben Isreal, the guy in charge of the audio is shaking his head and whispering that he can't find the song. She looks over and sees Santana threatening him and even tries to change the track but is having no luck.

"You have a minute to start, Brittany S. Pierce or your audition is over."

Brittany's eyes widen. There is no way she is going to let this opportunity go. Santana is worried and Quinn looks helpless. She takes a deep breath and tells Ben to play this that only track that is working, play.

"I'll be performing a contemporary piece to Sia's Elastic Heart."

Brittany stands in the center. Her right-hand moves from her waist up to her mouth while her left-hand tries to hold her back. Reaching her chin, her legs open wide and her hips lower down. Her fingers covering her mouth and she shakes her head. Her legs move fluidly and she's once again standing straight. Her right arm moving up down her body until it touches her heart. Her left hand still making the journey hard. Her hands move to show the number one. Quickly, her thumb sticks out and she shoots herself with her finger gun and opens her legs to drop her hips lower again. This time she beautifully falls to her knees. She spins and fakes struggles as she gets up, but she does. Like moments before, her left hand pretends to give her left a struggle as it reaches her mouth once more to stop the fake urge to vomit.

Santana knows this isn't the routine Brittany had shown her and still, it looks so well put together and so, so good. She watches as Brittany stands straight only to move quickly by placing lifting her knee and spinning around on her toes. She drops on her knees before, again. She repeats the previous by bringing her the knew and spinning in the opposite direction. She falls again and on all fours and spend around. She pretends to be pushing an invisible enemy. With her hands, she pulls an invisible robe. Once she's reached the end of her pretend rope, she pretends to see something fly away. With a worried face, she brings her hands to her head and shakes it. She uses her right hand and pushes her left shoulder. She falls once more. Coming on her feet and knees.

She walks slowly. Her body moving almost as if she's a zombie. Broken and weak, but still she pretends to fight this invisible enemy. Her movements around the stage as she appears to get weaker and closer to the ground until she elegantly loses the pretend battle. She turns around again and crawls on all fours. She opens her legs wide, holding her head up with bent knees as if she's doing an open leg squat, her body turns to the left as her right-hand moves along with her right hand until it reaches her heart. Her body sways and her arms are stretched as if she is stretching an invisible elastic band. She brings her leg down as her spin completes and her hands move along the skin of her arms. She jumps and does the splits in the air. Fighting the invisible enemy once more.

She stands upright before she's moving quicker now. With more energy. As if in her dancing story, she's got her strength back. She spends her arms out and spins. Effortlessly she brings her leg straight up during her spin. She looks like a ballerina. She falls again onto her knees and her body leans back. Her arm and cooer body moving in a circular motion before her torso us upright. She's weak still but not giving up.

Santana's breath is caught in her throat and she sighs as she sees tears drop from Brittany's face. Santana has seen Brittany dance one time. What she had seen then was a beautiful bit this. This was making her speechless.

Brittany continues a bit longer. So far it's only been a minute but to Santana, it feels like it's been going on forever and she swears she doesn't want it to end because Brittany is just so talented.

The scout has other plans however, she stands up.

"Cut the music." She says abruptly. 

Santana's heart drops. The song isn't over. Brittany isn't done. She watches Brittany and can tell she's nervous now. She's upright now waiting for the scout to speak.

"I received your audition tape. I thought it was perfect." Her face is emotionless as she speaks.

Brittany wants to smile but she knows the lady isn't done speaking.

"This wasn't the same dance you had submitted, is that right?"

"That is correct ma'am. There were some technical difficulties and I had to wing it."

"Do you have any idea how big of a risk it was?" She questioned. 

Santana's heartbreaks. She's pretty sure Brittany's heart is breaking too. She feels Quinn grab her hand for comfort and possibly to keep her from running on stage to comfort Brittany.

"Yes, but I gave it my best shot. " Brittany said strongly.

"Taking a risk like that cost people careers. It can make or break any show. It could very much cost you this audition."

Brittany swallows hard. Her breathing still hard from her dancing.

"Show directors don't take kindly to modifications in their shows. They don't appreciate impromptu performances. That said, your risk paid off this time. If this was you on the top of your head, I cannot wait to see what you have when you put something together with time. You have this ability to show emotion that unfortunately, many professionals lack. You have amazing lines. Your movements are fluid. One minute is all it took for me to know that for sure you were not a waste of time."

Brittany smiles widely and she swears she heard Santana release a breath.

"I am going, to be honest with you and tell you this. I have never been more honored to offer a full scholarship to Juilliard. You've done quite well. Congratulations."

Brittany thanks her before walking off stage and jumping into Santana's arms. For a smaller girl, she was very strong. Cheer practice with Coach Sue must be pretty intense. After there own little private celebration, Santana lets her down to stand on her own two feet.

"You did it!" Santana says happily.

"You were amazing out there!" Quinn added just as happy.

"Awwww. You guys." She blushed as she bit her lip.

She couldn't fit the good feeling in her entire body. She put her hands around both of her friends and hugged them tightly.

"I need to send a text to Kurt and Blaine." She says retrieving her phone from her bag. "They told me to call as soon as I finished."

* * *

The trio walked outside the auditorium. Before making their way under the bleachers for more privacy. Brittany had texted the whole way there. She gave him the good news and they were both happy for her. She had also told him that she was no longer working there.

"It's official. I no longer work at Sin City. I just told Kurt that I quit. He'll pass the word along to Judy."

Mentioning the name makes their little happy bubble disappear.

"Officer Evans said that the DA wants to investigate the case. They've already submitted a request to exhume the bodies. It could take some time to find anything because the bodies are probably all bones now. He said that in the meantime, CPS will be placing us in different homes so that we're safe." Quinn said emotionless. Still processing the information.

'That's good news." Santana said.

"They contacted my aunt. She agreed to take us in."

It was so quietly said that an unsettling feeling started to build in her stomach.

"Which Aunt?" She said trying to think of any close relatives that she had met in the past. She couldn't think of anyone close and that made her furrow her eyebrows

"Do you remember my Aunt Holly?" Brittany asked.

Of course, she recalls the woman. She was Santana's favorite but Brittany's Aunt didn't live remembered how it would take hours for her to arrive whenever she was visiting.

"She lives in Akron." She pointed out.

"Which is exactly the fucking problem, Santana." Quinn exasperated with an attitude.

'That's not fair. She can't take you guys away like that." The Latina declared.

"Twitter update! She can. She's the only relative we have who can take care of us. Britt's grandparents live with her." Quinn jeered. "In case you've forgotten, this whole fucking thing is unfair!" She added angrily before kicking the pebbles so hard some of them flew and hit the bleachers. "Fuck this whole situation!" She yelled out at the top of her lungs.

"Q" The other girls whispered.

"Sorry" she grunted. "I just have rage."

"We know. It's okay."

"We love you still."

"It's just until this whole thing is over. Once it ends, maybe we can come back."

"Maybe" Santana cautioned

"Aunt Holly said we'd talk about it. She said she'd be here after school."

"You're leaving today?" She squeaked her voice raw with emotion.

"We'll call. Facetime and text. Every chance we get." Brittany pleaded

"Yeah, and we'll drive here every weekend." The other blonde added

Santana sighs. She wants to be upset but she also doesn't want to spend the past few hours fighting with her two best friends. She knows it's going to be hard but they'll get through it.

The trio spends their last few hours together. They had Aunt Holly and Santana's mom arrange for the school to let them leave and for the girls to be picked up from Santana's house. After some hours, the girls said their farewells promising to call each other every night.

* * *

Santana misses them so much. Lima just wasn't the same. For so long, it had been her and the Quinn and their cheerio minions. Being in a relationship with Brittany and reconnecting with her, made the hole in her heart that was impossible to fill. The taller blonde had resided there for so long and though they weren't talking, Santana would always be able to see her. She couldn't even do that. Cheer wasn't fun without Quinn. Glee wasn't fun without Brittany. Lima sucked so bad.

It's Friday and she's bored out her mind. Quinn and Brittany said they would call her as soon as they could. It was nearly 7 and she hadn't heard from either of them. Her phone rings. She answers her phone quickly without even checking who it is.

"Sa…tna. Help" she hears on the line before the call drops.

Her eyes bulge. She pulls away her phone to look at the screen. Her last incoming call was from Mike. She recalls the last conversation she had with Mike.

* * *

_"I seem to have forgotten my jacket. It's in the living room." He explains._

_"Why is your jacket here?" She asked as Santana retrieved it._

_"Oh! Your mom didn't tell you?"_

_Santana and Quinn, aware of Judy's past somewhat, looked at each other._

_"I'm giving your mom dance lessons. Friday is our last lesson. She's a great dancer, Quinn. You definitely take after your mom."_

* * *

"You are not going to die on me, Chang." She says before calling 911.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"My friend. He's in danger. Please send help!"

"Ma'am I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath. Explain what your emergency is."

"Listen, lady, my friend might be dying. I need you to send help."

"Ma'am I understand that. The paramedics are on the line. I need you to explain so they know how to prepare for the emergency.

"546 Alamos St. My friend is there. He called me asking for help. He might have been poisoned."

"Is there anyone you need me to call? His parents?"

"Evans! Call Officer Evans!"

Santana starts her car and puts the phone on the speaker before she speedily makes her way to the Fabray house. She prays that her friend Mike can be saved.

* * *

"Officer Evans we have a 10-33" Officer Evans hears through his radio

"10-2, this is Officer Evans" Office Evans replies into the radio

"10-39, the address is 546 Alamos St"

Officer Evans turns his lights and sirens on and rushes to the emergency occurring at the Fabray house. The woman has been under investigation and things are moving very slowly. He pushes the pedal more to increase the speed. If the young ladies that approached him earlier are correct about their suspicions, there might be another death added to the list of questionable deaths that surround Judy.

Pulling up, he sees a car with the door open. It's still running. He unholsters his gun and takes the safety off. Approaching the opened door, he checks to see that it is empty before strategically making his way to the opened front door. Entering the house he sees a romantic setting with candles and hears soft music playing. The lights in the living room are down but he can see everything thanks to the lights from the dining room and kitchen which are right next to. It's an open layout.

Santana is hovering over Mike's body and her fingers are deep in his throat. Mike gags before he forcibly throws up. Santana removes her fingers and turns him around to allow the vomit to exit his body. Once he stops, she positions his body and repeats the action.

"She's doing some laundry waiting for you to arrest her." She tells him. She'd been crying and despite being covered and surrounded in vomit, she keeps checking his breathing and pulse.

Officer Evans makes his way down the hallway to the laundry room where Judy is folding some laundry she'd taken out from the dryer.

"Female black widows die after laying their eggs." Judy smiles and turns around with her hands behind her lower back for her to be handcuffed.

Officer Evans cuffs her and reads her, her Miranda rights.

* * *

Everything is in slow motion. The ambulance EMTs arrive and rush into the house. They carefully move Mike's body on a sheet before maneuvering him onto the bed. They put the oxygen mask on his face and before he is rolled away, he looks at Santana. She can't hear the EMTs telling her that she possibly saved his life. She can't smell the vomit on her though she's covered in it. Her eyes are on Judy as Officer Evans walks her outside. They follow them until she no longer follows them as forensics rush into the house.

"Ma'am?"

"Ma'am?

"Are you okay?"

"I need an EMT. This woman appears to require assistance."

Santana lets herself be guided outside where she is check-up in the back of a second ambulance truck. Officer Evans approaches her and that's when she returns to reality.

"What you did, going in there, That was stupid!!. You could've gotten hurt!" he yells to her. 

"I wasn't thinking." SHe says quiet and in shock. 

His anger diminishes when he hears the tremble in her voice, "I'm glad you're okay." 

"I am going to need a statement but you've had a long night. Go home. Come to the station tomorrow."

"Yeah."

A forensic scientist asks to take pictures of her. He also takes samples of the vomit on her hands. Before she's seen by EMTs, she gets washed with a hose and then wrapped in a blanket. An older woman checks her vitals signs but determines that she is uninjured but shaken. Santana has a hard time coming to terms with everything happening around her.


	10. Lucy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little gory and dark.

It seems that the entire neighborhood has come out to investigate the incident as police, forensic, and emergency vehicles are on the scene. The press is trying to get as much information as they can. News reporters are reporting live to their respective stations. There isn't a lot of information available but they question several witnesses that have been there before them. Everyone behind the yellow caution tape that borders the area. Several police officers guard the area to ensure no one passes it.

Quinn and Brittany struggled their way through the crowds until they push past the few remaining people in front of them. They manage to grab the yellow tape and swing it over there head but strong arms hold their bodies.

"Not so fast ladies. The area is restricted."

Quinn tries to get out of their hight hold but is having no luck.

"That's my house!" Quinn fumed angrily

"Ma'am this area is off-limits. I'm sorry."

"LET ME GO!" She shouted again as she tries to free herself ones more but is unsuccessful.

Brittany doesn't struggle with the officers. Instead. Her rational mind looks for someone who could help them. She spits Office Evans and calls him over but he can't hear her. Not a moment later she spots Santana.

"San!"

For the first time that night, Santana is broken from her thoughts. Brittany's calling her. There are so many people that she doesn't spot her at first. She then hears Quinn shouting at the officers who have just tackled her onto the floor as she escaped momentarily from their hold.

Her legs run over to the two women and she runs into Brittany's arm. Her red eyes start crying again. She hears Officer Evans talk to the officers and tells them that the two women can pass once the officer calls him over to let him know that Quinn, in handcuffs, was not following orders.

"I was so scared. Mike..he.." Her voice cracks and more tears come out. She's unable to speak.

Quinn is shouting back at the officer who tackled and cuffed her as he releases her cuffed hands.

"I was following protocol." He informs her.

Her icy glare scares him off. Her eyes land on the patrol car. Her mother's eyes lock with hers. She'd finally learned the truth. Sure, she suspected as much, but she hoped she was being her own crazy, irrational self. She didn't want to be right. She wants to be angry, but this woman was her mother. This woman never physically hurt her and yet this woman was incredibly dangerous.

She hadn't realized it but her legs had carried her over to the car where her mother was. The windows are up and she can't speak to her but their eyes never left each other. Quinn puts her hand up to the glass window. Her actions silently begging for answers to the million questions running through her head.

Quinn watches as her mother mouths the words, "so you can get help."

* * *

Camera's observe them and several flashes go off as Judy Fabray brings her hand up to Quinns. The thin clear glass is the only thing diving them. Quinn begins to cry. Her turmoil quickly turning into anger. She stretched out palm now balled into a fist slamming against the window as she yells that she hates her mother. Everyone around them watches except for Santana, who has her head buried in Brittany's chest, watches them.

Officer Evans approaches her and gets her away from the vehicle with his front arms. He doesn't let go as she fights to get out of his grasps.

Quinn falls to her knees as she watches as the car her mom is in, slowly moves away. Faster and faster it goes until it turns the corner and then it's gone. Quinn's eyes fall on the only family she has left. She watches her sister as she's comforting Santana. She slowly walks over to them and instantly feels like a third wheel but Brittany lifts one arm, inviting Quinn to come closer to her. She accepts and the trio cries together neither of them caring that they were being filmed or they people were taking pictures of them.

This will be all over the news tomorrow if it wasn't already on the news tonight.

* * *

She doesn't know how much time passes. She remembers bits and pieces. Recalling how Santana's parents rushed over to them and wrapped blankets around them before they were helped over to their vehicle. She doesn't remember how she got there, but they ended up staying at Santana's house again.

They stayed in the living room. No one was tired. They didn't necessarily have any energy either. They were tired. Empty. Shocked.

"How could you forgive me so easily?" She questioned Brittany who was brushing Santana's head that rested in her lap.

"How could you forgive me that easily after everything I've done to you? Aren't you angry at me?"

* * *

Brittany stops her movements. she knew they'd have to discuss this. They'd been surrounded by a lot of uncertainty with Judy and what Quinn and Santana had found that they never truly discussed what happened.

Santana, sensing they need some alone time, said she was going to do her nightly routine and headed upstairs to her room.

"Don't you hate me?" Quinn questioned.

Brittany breathes in.

"When I was in 's class last for Work History, we learned about WW2. She taught us that Germany won. Rachel and I knew she was lying. Rachel decided she wanted to dedicate a whole month to learn about her heritage."

Brittany smiles when Quinn's face looks at her a little irritated. "I promise there's a point to this story. Trust me."

Brittany pauses and thought of how she wanted to continue. I remember reading about Dr. Mengele, have you ever heard of him?

She watched as Quinn shook her head.

"He was a Nazi doctor. He experimented with a lot of prisoners. He had an obsession with twins. Those were his favorite but he also liked people that had different colored eyes, dwarfs, and any other physical abnormalities. Rachel and I came across this woman. Her name was Eva Mozes Kor. She was a twin. She and her sister were saved by Dr. Mengele."

"That's good right?"

Brittany shook her head. "In the long run, yes. Dr. Mengele was a monster. His experiments killed a lot of people. He would pour chemicals into his subject's eyes just to see if it would change their eyes. He'd amputate unnecessarily. Operate without anesthesia. Willingly infect prisoners with diseases. He would kill a surviving twin if the other died. Eva and Miriam survived. Many years later, Eva was in this movie. It was called "Forgiving Dr. Mengele". Eva was in it. She talked about what happened. Revealed that she forgave him."

"She forgave him?"

"She forgave him," Brittany confirmed. "After all the terrible shit he did to her and her sister, her friends, to many others. She found it in herself to forgive him."

Brittany moves to sit closer to her stepsister and takes her hands into hers. "You did shitty things to me but nothing and I mean nothing you did was anywhere near what some people face. It wasn't anything near what Eva faced. You simply shoved me into the lockers, tripped me in the cafeteria, took my clothes from my locker. You slushied me. A lot. You spread some rumors about me. It did hurt."

"I also insulted you in front of everyone and proceeded to pour milk on top of your head and made everyone laugh at you. I was awful."

"You slapped me twice I think."

"And you refused to fight me."

"It sucked but I'm here. I'm well."Brittany sniffled as slow tears escaped her eyes. "I am alive."

Quinn sighed and hugged Brittany hard. "I'm sorry and thank you for forgiving me."

"Forgiveness is a powerful thing. You need to forgive yourself too. This is not your fault. You did what you had to make sure you were safe. So did I. We both took on these roles. You took the one your mother assumed to you. The one where you bullied me, and I the one where I let you and pretended to be all the things she wanted me to be."

Brittany felt Quinn nod into her shoulder.

"When coming home drunk, you sneak into my room crying."

She felt Quinn stiffen in her arms as she listened.

"I was scared when it happened at first but you would just hug me and apologize over and over about the stuff you've done to me. You'd fall sleep crying and I'd take you to your room. You would always forget. You don't remember ever doing that?"

"No" she hears in a shaky voice.

They pull apart and Brittany wipes Quinn's tears. "It's okay. I do. You're one of the few people I have in this world. Your my sister and I love you."

"I love you, too," Quinn said as new tears formed in her eyes.

They hugged again until they both stopped crying. When they did, they let Santana join them again.

* * *

Saturdays were supposed to be fun. They were teenagers in their last year of high school. They should be at parties, on dates, or shopping. The two blondes and brunette were not. They found themselves at the station. Neither had eaten. They didn't have an appetite. Santana's parents didn't push it. Instead, they told their daughter that they were proud of her for saving Mike's life. Her father had helped him the hospital and they informed her that his little girl forced him to throw up. She'd gotten the majority of the vomit out of his system before it could be ingested and absorbed by his body.

That had been hours ago. Quinn and Brittany waited as Santana gave her statement. She'd been in there for 30 minutes.

A detective approaches Quinn. He'd learned she was there to accompany her friend.

"She has expressed that she will not speak to us unless you are there. She'd like to confess but she wants you there. She feels she owes you that much."

Quinn rolls her eyes and huffs. The anger bubbling inside her. Brittany reaches for her hand and squeezes it.

"I'm right here. Santana and I will wait for you."

Quinn breathes in before she nods and stands up. The officer instructs her to follow her and she does. She follows him and them past detectives as they sit at their desks and into a long narrow hallway. One door, then four, until they reach the last one on the left. She walks in and her mother stands up.

"Quinnie, you came." She says happily. "Good morning." She says with a smile.

Quinn gives her a look but her face shows no emotion. The detective gave her specific instructions to not get too close to the woman.

They all sit down and immediately, the lawyer whispers into Judy's ear that she doesn't have to do this but she ignores him.

"You cried a few weeks ago about being normal. I can't fix you. I let myself get caught just to show you that you're is nothing like me." Her voice was monotonous.

Quinn cries at hearing this. She still feels that she is just like her mother. That she will turn out to be a monster just like her. She figures she will always feel that way.

The detective informs her that the interview will be filmed and recorded and that it will very likely be used in the trial. Judy waits until they let her know they are ready.

"I was born May 17th, 1972 in South Carolina. I have no idea who my birth mother is. I had been abandoned at his doorstep with a note. My father told me she was a prostitute. His name was Joseph Fabray. His mother and father had also abandoned him. He was named adopted by a couple but he never told me their names, he was just a baby himself and didn't know.

He had a temper. I remember I was 3 when he whipped me with the switch cable until my buttocks bled. I never spoke up to him again."

Quinn feels a mixture of anger and sadness as her mother speaks.

"He would be many women home. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed. He would beat them. I wouldn't scream or cry. I didn't want to get beaten too. Daddy would always save his worst for when they were up in his room or the basement. I can still hear their voices. I hear them all the time in my sleep. Sometimes, I hear them when I am awake. I have never managed to make them go away."

Quinn swallows hard. Afraid at what she's hearing. What if she can't make them go away?

"When I was 12, I went into the basement and discovered that daddy had pictures of every woman he had ever bought home. Each picture had a locket of hair attached to it. Each one had a single dot of blood. It was his little collection. There was a woman there the first time I found it while I was looking for a ball. Her name was Margaret. I don't think I ever got the last name. She was dead."

Quinn looks away from her mother upon hearing this. Breathing hard. Scared.

"He never found out that I had been there. Every time I heard a scream coming from the basement, I knew a woman was being killed. Death has this smell. It's awful. I never could forget it. It would happen once or twice a year. Three times in a rare year here and there. I'd see missing woman posters all over town and on tv but no one ever suspected anything. The times were different then."

Quinn was shaking. Her stomach twisting and turning. She felt ill with each passing moment. She looks at her emotionless mother. She can hear the pen scratching away at the yellow legal pad as the detectives write things down. She knows that the detectives on the other side of the mirrored window are probably looking these people up.

"Daddy always made sure we went to church. He would amen sure we had a clean house. That we were well respected. I mastered deceit at a very young age. I still am very good at hiding" She gloated with a smile before she continues.

Her smile sends chills down Quinn's back. Again, she is reminded that she too is good at deceit and hiding.

"When I was twelve, things got worse. He married a woman. Her name was Shannon Beiste. A fitting name if she would have kept it but, she didn't. She took my father's name. My father was an evil man, but this woman, she was inhuman. You see, my father didn't kill a woman in front of me. Ever. She, however, made me watched. For many years, I watched her torture woman until they were dead. I remember the first woman. Shannon made her victims introduce themselves to me. Her name was Tonya Gilmore. She was a brunette."

She turns to the male investigators in the room.

"She was a beautiful young lady. All the woman Shannon murdered were beautiful." Judy winked at them and the men visibly felt uncomfortable. One even loses his tie.

"I vomited when her bones broke. It was sticking out of her arm. Shannon thought it was hilarious. She cut her open and I fainted when it was over. I don't know what they did to the bodies. I think they were buried in the farm outback. Daddy had a very big piece of land. I assumed they were there somewhere. I never did go check. She murdered more often than my father. Sometimes they would take the women up to their room before they killed them in from of me. Shannon would always call them dirty little whores and degrade them for sleeping with her husband."

Judy retells a few other stories of other women. The detectives wrote the names of at least thirteen women. Judy went into detail. Not sparing anything. There was one woman who was left alive for twenty days only to have a toe or finger cut off. When they had no more fingers and toes, they killed her.

Quinn feels like she's going to throw up. She gets up and walks to the trashcan and starts heaving. What kind of hell did her mother get raised in?

Judy, unfathomed or bothered by her daughter's actions continues.

"If you want to stop today, we can do that?" Quinn hears one of the officers say.

Judy is quick to speak. "If she leaves, I stop talking."

Quinn shakes her head. "It won't get any easier tomorrow." She concludes. She moves the trash can next to her chair and takes a seat. Her hands are flat on the table in an attempt to stop the dizziness that has surfaced as a result of the gory details she's hearing.

"I had no friends. Daddy and Shannon never taught me how to have relationships. All I knew was how to pretend to be friendly, nice, and well mannered. I hated every fucking person in the world. So much so that I collected black widows and name them all. I was fascinated. I watched them carefully from their little glass enclosure. I saw how they mated and kill their mates as soon as they had babies. They're my favorite. Simply the coolest ever."

Quinn looked at her mother. She sounded like a child just then.

"Joseph McGuire was the first person that tried to have a genuine connection with me. He was handsome and very nice. Had I been capable of forming feelings for him, I am sure I would have loved him. I didn't. We met at a church. He never pressured me into sex. He knew my father wouldn't like that. He was terrified of him. He was patient and at twenty-two, we got married. I fell pregnant three months into the marriage and I killed him. I cooked him his favorite meal. Fried chicken, mash potatoes with gravy, and corn on the cob. It was loaded with venom. It changed the taste of the food but he would never admit to it. He ate it all. Praised the meal and me with every bite he took. It took about 20 minutes for it to kick in. He died while he was in the bathroom. People thought I was grieving but I was simply growing impatient with his life insurance company. They were taking too long. I had a miscarriage soon after he died. That was the first time I was genuinely sad. I wanted a baby so bad. His parents didn't leave me for four months."

Quinn visibly gasps and distanced herself from the table in fear.

"Nine months later, I moved to Frankfort, Kentucky. I got a job as a waitress at some restaurant. I met a guy named Louis Quincy Anderson. He was handsome. More so than my previous husband."

The younger blonde's ears perked at the mentioned of her father. "My dad."

"That's right. You look very much like him. You have his eyes and his nose. He games me you. The one person I truly, truly love with everything that I am."

The tears fall freely from her face. Her mother had only ever told her that he had abandoned them for some tattooed whore.

"He didn't have any relatives. He was an only child. He came from a very wealthy family. One from old money. One of the founding families of the state of Kentucky. He boasted about it to me for weeks in an attempt to charm me. I gave him a good cat and mouse chase and played hard to get. He was such a charmer. Very romantic. He must have truly loved me because he had several women interested in him. He chose me. Married me four weeks after meeting me. He had a lot of money and that's why I married him. Some months later, I had you. My precious. Beautiful baby girl. The one that I have always wanted. I named you after him."

Quinn looked at her quizzically. "What are you talking about?"

"Your name is Lucy. It was Lucy Quinn Anderson. I named you after him. I wanted you to have his name. I didn't want you to have my last name. You were too pure, too pretty to be a Fabray. I didn't ever want you to turn out like me. I promised you that I would never, ever hurt you. Not my baby girl. Not the one person I ever loved." Judy revealed with tears falling from her eyes for the first time since the previous night.

Her lips tremble. Her mother was so mentally sick and yet, she loved Quinn the most. Her heart hurt. She felt sadness for her mother. She was empathetic towards her despite the awful things she had told her.

"Once I was able to sell all the properties your father had, I moved. You weren't born yet. Not for 6 more months. I found a quiet place. Lima, Ohio. I felt it was the perfect place to raise you. No one knew me here. For a while, I was totally smitten by you. You made me so happy. The happiest I had ever been to. You loved me. For the first time, I knew what that felt like. To be loved by someone. I learned how to take care of you. I didn't have that growing up. I still suck at some stuff like comforting you when you cry. I hate seeing you cry. I would always let you have whatever you wanted. It was why you got to eat a lot of fo candy growing up even though it was bad for you." She chuckled.

Quinn did have a lot of candy growing up. Her friends thought it was cool.

"You were getting older and you didn't need me as much. Slowly, that feeling returned. That urge to want to have a baby. That meant that I needed to find a mate. Like black widows, I needed to find a mate, get pregnant, and then kill them."

Quinn mentions the man who she viewed as her father. "Poppa Richie."

"I met him when you started going to kindergarten. He was a great man. For a year, he tried to ask me out. I had always said no. He loved the fact that his little girl and my little girl were best friends. He tried to use play dates as an excuse to get us to go out but I had said no every time. You girls still found a way to hang out anyway. Half days at school turned to full days. You were gone for 6 hours. You were so smart and independent. Like your dad. I got al little lonely again. One day, I said yes to dating Richard. A year later, when you and Brittany were seven, we got married. He adopted you. He never questioned why your last name had been Anderson. He never questioned why I called you Fabray either. He thought I hated your dad. I felt no particular way about him."

"I knew you loved him. He treated you so well. I liked that. He wanted you to take his last name. I let him. I wanted you to know what a good male role model should be. I fought the urge to just have him drop dead. We tried for a baby but I was hit with the harsh reality that I no longer could bare children. Instead of killing him like I had the other men, I took my time."

Quinn's heart broke at the confession. She didn't remember her biological father but Poppa Richie the only father she had. The only one she knew. Listening to this, it hurt so bad. Brittany, the person that she had learned to love almost instantly, had her father murdered. She wonders briefly if he would still be alive if she and Brittany hadn't been friends.

"Before he had his heart attack, he changed his will. I tried to reassure him every time he got sick, that he wasn't going to drop dead one day. He was incredibly smart. I'm sure Brittany takes after her father in that respect. Apart from the money hey left for you, He had left everything to her. Luckily for me, it wasn't hard to change. He had a very easy signature to forge. He died three weeks later. I stopped killing for a while."

"You were so mean to Brittany. You...you made me mean to her." Quinn blubbered out.

"She couldn't be better than you, Quinnie. You're my number one goal. I saw how jealous you were when she bought home her test that had 100% on them. You hated how she was better at you at dancing. You were better than her. You are better than her. I promised you that I would make you happy."

"I've treated her so bad." She reveals angrily. The quilt still consumed her.

Judy Fabray just shrugged. She didn't care about other people.

"The urge to kill came back. I went to a therapist and pretended to have the anxiety to get some pills. They worked. Then they stopped working. I tried to stop it. It was too strong. Too strong to the point where my twisted, sick brain rationed that I could have sex and kill them without needed to get pregnant."

The younger girl remembers walking in on her mom and her best friend's boyfriend "Noah Puckerman?" She questioned.

"He and Mike were not my preferred choices. They were just easy targets. Older men tend to think too much of kids and I wanted to kill someone. Noah was too easy to seduce. All I had to do was offer him something to drink while he was cleaning our pool. The stupid boy would be dead right now had you not come home. Mike was a true gentleman. He didn't give in to any temptation. In the end, I decided to just be done with it."

Her voice is cold. Distant. It sends shivers down Quinn's spine.

"Mike Chang would be dead too if it weren't for that stupid bitch, Santana." She seethed. "Always hated that girl."

A loud clapping sound can be heard followed by a gasp. Quinn slapped her mother so hard on the face.

"DON'T CALL HER THAT! She's my best friend. I..I have f-feelings for her."

Judy's face stayed tilted to the side as she processed the slap. Her cheek turning red. She smirks and turns. Though painful, it didn't hurt. She'd dealt with much worse.

"I may not know much about it but if you ask me, love will only get you hurt." She said it with a smirk. It was obvious she was referring to the men that loved her. They were all dead.

Quinn is breathing hard. "That's not true. Santana may not love me back but seeing how she and Brittany treat each other. It's beautiful." There was no quiver in her declaration. She sounded strong. Confident. "I will have that someday."

Judy smirks once more. "And that my dear, is why you are nothing like me. I am one fucked up, twisted piece of shit. I was raised in hell. I killed men for no reason. Thankfully, I was blessed with you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I tried my best to protect you from my demons. I did alright but I want you to get help for some of the issues you have. You can be fixed. I never stood a chance. As much of a monster as I am, I love you, Quinn. I wasn't the best person but I did my best with you."

Quinn belittles herself as tears fall from her face.

"I want you to get help. Please. I don't want you to see me in this place. I don't want you to ever come back to see me."

Quinn furrows her bows upon hearing this.

"Don't come back here. Get help and be the person you were meant to be."

Quinn nodded and wiped her tears.

They say their farewell before Quinn is escorted out by the lieutenant.

"I can get you some help. There is this doctor that you can see. She'll help you with whatever stuff you and your mom talked about. She will help you you deal with everything you've just heard."

Quinn nods. Her hand coming up to comfort her stomach. it still hurt.

"Here is her card."

She takes it and stares at it. This is the first step in healing. In becoming normal. "Thank you" She whispers out.

The walk back to her friend seems long. As promised, her best friends are waiting for her. They stand up as they see her and she immediately crashes into their arms.

* * *

The whole car ride, Quinn doesn't say a thing. Everything she hears today replays in her mind. Her stomach twisting and turning. At a stoplight, she loans the door and throws up several times. Santana pulls over to the side of the road.

Santana holds up her hair as Brittany rubs her back.

Quinn's vomiting eventually stops after her stomach is empty. She accepts the mint Santana offers.

Once Quinn tells them she's sure she's ready to go, they get back into the car. The first thing they do is roll down the windows so Quinn can get some air. The voices are still there. Whispering, they come and go.

Later that week, the news about her maternal grandfather and her step-grandmother being arrested makes her set up an appointment. She knows she made the right decision when the body count keeps climbing. Her mother, grandfather, and step-grandmother were monsters.

She couldn't turn out like them.


	11. Rachel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quote: "...the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day” is from Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Three months have passed since the attempted murder of Mike Chang. The initial news of a serial killer the media dubbed "The Blonde Black Widow" sent shock waves throughout the nation. Lima, Ohio had a large influx of news reporters and journalists trying to get interviews with anyone who knew any victims, the family members, and the serial killer herself.

It was Puck who revealed what they looked followed the girls. Pestering them endlessly for more information on the case. They wanted to know how the woman was as a mother. The girls ignored them. Every local news channel and even news outlets talked about the case. It has gotten so much attention that the girls stopped watching tv altogether.

* * *

Being friends helped them heal. All three of them were seeing a therapist and they were all making progress. Quinn had to tell Brittany and Santana what her mother had told her. It was part of her healing process.

Quinn had the hardest struggle. The psychiatrist she made an appointment with requested that she stay at a psychiatric hospital for some time. With everything going on, her psychiatrist wanted to be sure she didn't have a breaking point with all that as happening.

It was hard for her to not think she'd turn out like her grandfather and her mother while she was there. Brittany and Santana visited her every day. To her surprise, so had Rachel.

Her psychiatrist, Dr. Motta, diagnosed Quinn with bipolar disorder. It took two weeks for the medication to go in effect, but when it did, Quinn did a complete 180. She was released but still had to attend therapy sessions. Quinn was okay with that.

The FBI had reported the reopening of several unsolved disappearances. In the weeks that followed, they were closed. They were tied to her grandfather and her step-grandmother. The current number of bodies identified was 56.

* * *

Brittany took the time to grieve her father properly. Learning about what happened reopened old wounds. She visited his grave, something she hadn't been allowed to do because of Judy. Santana and Quinn accompanied her. Quinn told her what her mother had shared with her. She learned to forgive Judy The therapist said she had to. It would only stall her progress if she held a grudge. It was hard but she understood that the woman was not mentally well. Brittany's therapist told her that the mistreatment she suffered at Judy's hands was called the Cinderella Effect.

After the FBI reported the ongoing investigation, they confirmed that her father was indeed poisoned and that Judy had illegally changed his will. The insurance corrected the changes and Brittany was now the owner of the house her father had promised her, the cars, and all of his assets. She had also reimbursed the money Judy had spent.

She closed down Sin City. She didn't know what to do with the property yet and it has remained closed. Her aunt and grandparents moved to be closer to Lima after learning the truth. Holly needed to help her with the finances. Brittany was responsible but she needed her aunts to help to manage the funds. It was too much and she didn't want to be taken advantage of. Her Aunt Holly understood.

* * *

Santana visited Mike three days after he had gone to the hospital. He had requested her to visit him so he could thank her. Of course, she obliged. The press followed them there. Once they learned of the heroic action she did, they interviewed them. Mike had revealed that he called her because he was the of the few people that knew where he was going to be that night. They praised her for saving his life. The mayor had met with her too.

Her father was so proud. She realized she wanted to be a doctor, too. Saving a life changed her life.

Mike fully recovered a week after the incident. He went back to school. His father and mother had thanked Santana again and again. They had almost lost their son. He would be dead if it weren't for Santana. He joined the glee club for dance. His father had a different perspective now that his son had a second chance. Life is too short. He told Mike that he could be whatever he wanted to be just as long as it involved going to college. Mike is pretty happy with that.

Puck came to the conclusion that he nearly escaped death the night Quinn caught him with the older woman. He since then, he has stopped fucking around.

* * *

"I think I'm ready." Quinn teased with a smile. "Dr. Motta is impressed with my progress. I feel really good about where I am."

"Details, Q, I need details," Brittany said excitedly. Ever since Her sister revealed to her that she had feelings for her close friend Rachel, she has been rooting for them to get together.

"I am talking about Rachel. I want to ask her out." She says dreamily.

"The hobbit broke up with Stumpy two weeks ago. She practically has been eye-fucking you ever since his big body is no longer in the way. Seriously, Britt-Britt and I see her doing it all the time during glee."

"She's even slobbered a few times," Brittany added.

"Hobbit. Two o'clock. She's coming this way. Change the subject." Santana rushed out.

"Maybe the three of use can get an apartment in New York?" Brittany says

"Hold up. Wait, what is happening ?" Santana questions as she realized what Brittany just said.

Brittany smiles. "An apartment in New York. I'm going to Juilliard. You're going to Columbia University. Quinn got into NYU. Q, no pressure if you want to go to Yale. We'll be close still. I just think it'll be soo much fun."

"When you put it that way. NYU does sound like a lot of fun."

"New York? Did I just hear you say, New York?" Rachel asks Quinn without concerning her personal space before sitting incredibly close.

Santana whispered inaudibly that the hobbit needs to be told about personal space. It got her. A playful snicker and smack on the shoulder from Brittany but Quinn wasn't as nice, she kicked her under the table. The glare told her to stop being so rude.

"I am going to NYADA. It would be nice to see you out there, Quinn."

Quinn blushes at that statement. Her heart is beating so fast having Rachel this close.

"Hey, babe, why don't you and I leave these two alone. I have an idea of what I want to do with Sin City."

"Perfect idea. Let's go. Bye Q. Hobbit." With that parted leaving Quinn alone with Rachel.

* * *

"Hey," Quinn says to Rachel. Her voice is softer. Nicer. It also is when it's she's alone with

Rachel.

"Hey," She says with a smile.

Rachel and Quinn had gotten close since Quinn's mother had gotten arrested. Rachel had gone to visit her almost every day. She called on the days she couldn't make it. Even though Quinn wasn't one who easily opened up, she couldn't stop herself from the days that passed. Though keeping some of more private thoughts to herself, she did begin to open up the brunette next to her. They'd become close.

"How was your therapy session yesterday?" It was just above a whisper but loud enough for Quinn to hear.

"Good. She is happy with my progress. I am have learned to let go of my anger. For really hard days, I know that all I have to do is count to 10 until it goes away. I haven't gotten angry since I got diagnosed. I don't know what is in store for me in the future but I know I will have Santana and Brittany."

"You have me, too." She adds.

Quinn swears her heart just beat.

"I am really proud of you, Quinn. You've been through so much. You're so brave and strong. I know you'll have good days and bad days but I-I h-h" she pauses to take a deep breath. This woman makes her stutter all the time. "I hope to be there even on your bad days."

Quinn is surprised. She's pretty sure most people are scared of her even more than before after hearing what she had not one, not two, but three serial killers in her family. Two of them were blood-related to her.

"You're not afraid I'll lash out on you?"

"Nope. Not even a little. I see you, Quinn. I see the girl inside you that is scared she'll be like her mom."

"How did y-"

"You're nothing like her. You smile when something good is happening. You get sad when Brittany or Santana are sad. You cry."

"I get mad too." She quipped.

"Because getting mad is normal Quinn. You're normal. Sure you've got some baggage with you but I still think you're great."

"Up until three weeks ago, you didn't even know me." She says observantly

"And yet, after knowing you three weeks, I still believe in you."

Their eyes hadn't left sight of each other except when Quinn glanced st Rachel's lips.

"Rachel, I'm going to kiss you now. Please let me know if that's not something you're okay with."

Rachel smiles and slowly leaned in to kiss Quinn's lips.

* * *

Somewhere in the distance, Brittany and Santana watch with silly smiles on their faces. They're really happy about their best friend. They pull away when a nearby jock whistles at them. Quinn shyly blushes and looks down at the table. The biggest smile appears on her face as Rachel nuzzles into her warm cheek.

The couple gets closer and holds hands on the table before talking once again. A similar smile on Rachel's face.

"The Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day," Santana says

Brittany looks at her adorable girlfriend. "You two were the biggest bitches in the whole school." She whispers before pulling Santana into a sweet, loving kiss. "I love you, babe," she coos.

"I love you too." She whispers backed.

"I wasn't kidding about what I said earlier."

"The apartment in New York?"

"That too but I was referring to Sin City."

"What are you thinking of doing?"

"When I told Kurt I was quitting, he mentioned he wanted to open a gay club. He's putting together a business plan to see if he can get a loan. Maybe he and I can be business partners."

"That studio was supposed to be your dance studio someday. Are you sure?"

"I've been dancing there since I was 16. That place could never be my dance studio. It holds a lot of memories as it is already. Plus, this will give me a chance to take something from my past that I was forced to doing and into something positive. Plus, I don't think I could live in Lima after knowing what happened here."

"You know I will support you no matter what."

They turned to look at Quinn and Rachel. "I think that we will have a fourth roommate in our apartment babe."

Brittany lets out an excited squeal.

"Best. Plan. Ever." She says excitedly

* * *

After glee rehearsals, Brittany meets up with Kurt and his husband, Blaine. This was the first time meeting with them in person since she quit. Kurt reaches out to her when he saw them in the news. She needed some space and Kurt respected that. She started texting him earlier that day and Kurt invited her over to dinner.

"I am so glad that you didn't let this drag you down. I've always known you were a strong woman. I'm sure your parents are proud of you. I know I am."

"Kurt," she said in the sweetest voice full of admiration.

"You got a full ride to Juilliard. Now, as your self assigned surrogate father, I must ask if this is for sure the school you want to go to? I mean you loved math. I've had to listen to your walkabout theories and stuff that, quite frankly, I never want to hear about again, but still, are you sure this is what you want?"

She smiles lovingly. "You two are family. You've taken care of me for a very long time. I never did say thank you for that."

"Don't make us cry, Britt," Blaine says.

"Seriously don't. I already did my daily skin routine." Kurt said as he tried to keep it together.

"I'm not going to lie. Juilliard has been my dream ever since I knew my mother had gone there. It's why I was good at dancing, my father always said. Once I learned about my mathematic abilities, I did consider going to Harvard, MIT, or Berkley but in the end, this is what I want to do. It's where my passion is. I want to do it forever. Don't get me wrong, I do love math. I adore it. It challenges my brain. I do enjoy it a lot but I don't want to do that for a living. I want to keep that as something fun."

Kurt and Blaine smile as they listen to the young woman.

"Dancing has always come so naturally to me. Most of the time, I am doing it before I even realize that I'm doing it. It's amazing. Math is a different kind of creative outlet. I don't want to do it all the time but rather as a past time, like a hobby."

"Brittany." He says proudly. "You're is all grown up." He says he says as he rests his head on Blaine's shoulder.

"Seem's like just yesterday you were this shy, little girl. I know it's been three weeks but I've never seen you this happy."

"I am. Enough about that. How's the gay club situation going?"

"It's a lot harder than I thought. I have all these ideas but I don't exactly have banks on board with the idea. I get it though. Ohio doesn't exactly the most open-minded place but I haven't lost hope. I know it'll happen."

"Funny you say that because I have all this property that I recently inherited as well as a large sum of money." She tries to not get too excited but she is terrible at doing so. "I think I"d like to turn Sin City into a gay club. Now, I know you probably want to do it all on your own but I wouldn't mind putting some money into it to turn it into something big."

"Britt, I-I don't think I could live with myself if it fails and you lose money on it. I would feel so terrible."

"Well, we could come up with something together. We can collaborate with our ideas and see what happens. I was watching RuPaul's Drag race and I had this idea. What if we had like a club where people could like go watch people perform. We'd have LGBT dancers and singers perform. One versus another or teams versus teams. We could work out the details bit something along those lines. We could have different themed days. I don't know. These are just ideas. Nothing is written in stone."

"Brittany! That sounds like a perfect idea!"

"Really?"

"You had me at LGBT dancers and singers. I can picture that." Blaine chirped. He loved performing.

"We need to talk and put together a business plan. We'll work on it this weekend but I have got to go home."

The young lady and her two father figures stand up and hug before the older men walk her to the door and watch her leave after saying goodnight.

"Take care, Britt. Text me tomorrow!" Kurt called out to the woman.

"Bring Santana next time and your sister too!"

With a dopey smile, she replied, "Will do. I love you guys!"

* * *

Quinn sits timidly in the Berry living room. She's waiting for Rachel to finish getting ready for her date. She's nervous. She's dating other boys from her high school but she had deep feelings for her best friend for the longest time. She's not quite over the Latin girl but she knows she will eventually get over her. She smiles as she thinks of the brunette upstairs and the kiss they shared today. The butterflies in her stomach give her hope. Her breath hitches when she catches sight of Rachel coming down the stairs. Her heart still before beating quickly. Her smile grows as she stands up and gets closer to her.

"You look beautiful." She says earnestly

"You don't look so bad yourself," Rachel responded shyly.

Quinn offers her hand to the brunette who accepts it.

"You two dads said to bring you back before 10. I intend to bring you back in time so let's go. There is no way I'm getting on their bad side."

The young couple makes their way to Quinn's car and drives away.

It's a tranquil ride. Their clamped hands rest on the console between them. Rachel is admiring Quinn every other short while.

"Quinn, I feel very lucky to be here with you. You've got this big heart. Thanks for letting me see it. I've only known you a short while but I like you."

Quinn smiled and glanced over at the other teenager in her car. " I like you too. I haven't been this excited about someone in awhile. It's too early to say where this will go but I know that I am going to enjoy every minute of it."

"I couldn't ask for anything more. I am just very happy to be here with you, right now. For as long as I can."

Quinn bites her lip. "Careful what you wish for. It could be for a long time." She teased.

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" She countered.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

* * *

Santana rests on top of Brittany as she kisses and sucks her neck. Brittany's hands caress her back. Brittany's eyes are shut as she tries to prevent a moan from escaping her lips. Santana's mouth feels so good against her neck. Her arousal growing with every passing moment. Santana's experienced hands move expertly under her shirt. Her hands press against the tight abdomen muscle before continuing their journey. She cups Brittany's right breast over her bra.

A moan escapes from her lips. She quickly bites her lip to stop the rest.

Santana smiles into her neck and pecks it before pulling back. She stills her movements.

"Is this okay?" She lets out with a throaty voice.

Brittany's eyes opened when she heard her. Blue eyes lock with brown eyes. Santana can see how dark and large her pupils have dilated. She's sure her eyes are the same. She nodded not trusting her voice.

The two women had previously discussed sex. Both had expressed wanting to wait. Santana, who had been with several guys in the past, wanted to do right by her. In the past, she was only intimate with guys to gain popularity. With Brittany, she has wanted intimacy out of love. She wanted to do this right.

Brittany, on the other hand, was nervous. She was so inexperienced. Santana made her feel so good and lately, she thinks she's ready to take the next step in their relationship.

Santana kissed Brittany as soon as Brittany nodded. This time it was the Latina who moaned. Her sweet, innocent Brittany was driving her crazy. Two hands were squeezing her ass.

"If you don't tell me to stop," she whispers onto think lips before kissing her more heatedly, "I won't be able to stop."

"Don't stop." The blonde whispers huskily before pulling Santana into a deep kiss.

They continue kissing, deciding to let the night take its course. 

* * *

Quinn and Rachel lay on down on a blanket on the grass by the river as they look up at the sky. Their heads are next to each other but their feet on opposite ends.

"I remember the first time I heard you sing in Glee club," Quinn says as she turns to look at Rachel. "I was there to support Santana."

"Her audition was amazing."

"It was. No doubt. But hearing you sing, seeing you perform. Especially in all of these performances since I've joined the glee club, you're amazing." She smiles as she sees Rachel blush. "You're meant to be a star, Rachel."

Rachel turns to look at Quinn with the most sincere smile gracing her lips.

"Someday, you're going to shine brighter than all the stars in the night sky."

Rachel's hands grab Quinn's face Her thumbs caress the kissable lips. She slowly leans in to gently kiss the soft lips. Her nose coming in contact with the girl's chin.

Pulling away, Quinn bites her lip.

"So, New York?"

Rachel chuckles.

"New York"

Neither of them needs any further confirmation. Quinn is going to New York. It's settled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my head, Brittana did not have sex but I wanted to leave it up to you to determine if they did. have sex. I didn't write it because again, I wasn't comfortable writing smut when I wrote this.


	12. You and I Will Make the World Jealous

Glee club won nationals that year. Graduation had come and gone. Many of the glee kids and seniors had already gone their separate ways. Brittany and Quinn had successfully found a two-bedroom apartment in New York with the help from their Aunt Holliday. Santana and Rachel would be moving in with them. Both of the Pierces were going to share a room with their respective girlfriends. It was an exciting next step for them. The foursome was having dinner at the Pierce household with their Aunt Holliday and the Pierce grandparents.

"You girls have grown up so fast. I've just reconnected with you two and you're going off to college." The older blonde spoke effectively breaking the silence.

"We'll come to visit. You know I've missed you all so much." Brittany said.

"For sure. I need as many good role models as I can in my life as possible." Quinn added.

"You're both doing so well with everything. I know that your therapist can't reveal much to me since you're both adults but they reassured me that you two will be fine. It's going to be a long road to recovery."

"I'm just happy that we were able to get a couple of good references for doctors in the city. Though I am a bit apprehensive about what's in store for me in the future, I am looking forward to the day where I can look back at this and be proud of how far I've gotten and who I've become." Quinn said as her fingers intertwined with Rachel's under the table promoting a smile on Rachel's lips.

"You and I both, Q," Brittany added looking at her step-sister then to the girl sitting next to her cutting her food. A big smile graces her face at the site. She still can't believe Santana is hers.

Silence settles amongst the dinner table once more as they enjoy their dinner. Brittany wishes to have many more dinners like this in the future. She hopes for many more. She also hopes for more family events together. She's unsure of what's in store for her and Santana or Quinn and Rachel but she hopes that they will all stick together. No matter what, she prays they all stick together. This is the family she has left and she is so grateful to have every single one of them. She can't picture her future without them. She looks at Quinn and Rachel who are smiling at each other. She can't fight the smile on her face. Her smile only grows when she feels Santana's hand stretch and simply touches her own before she intertwines their fingers. Their eyes lock and she swears Santana must have known she'd imagined Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays with all of them. Perhaps she'd also imagined them, too. Maybe with the addition of her parents and other friends and family.

The way Santana brings their clasped hands and kisses the back of her hand, she's certain that for sure, she had pictured it all too.

Their moment is interrupted by her grandfather. Everyone's attention is on the only male in the room. He's 65, tall, and his blonde hair fading. His blue eyes a lighter color. His smile was big and proud. He stands on his feet.

"I know this year has been rough. Particularly so for our two graduates, Brittany and Quinn. Your grandmother and I have a few gifts for you both." As he finished that sentence, Grandma Pierce gave both Quinn and Brittany individuals keys. Quinn's keychain had a pom-pom in it and Brittany's a rubber duck. "These are keys to your Manhattan condo. We wanted to make sure you two girls focused solely on your education so, I contacted my financial advisor and my old friend and we paid for your condo. It's pretty spacious. You know, only the best for my two dearest girls. Quinn, we know our son left you money to pay for college. We want you to keep that and invest it. We paid for it all. Britty, you made us so proud with the full ride to Juilliard, we also set some money aside for you."

Quinn let out a surprised gasp and Brittany smiled bashfully. Both of the girls rushed to hug their grandparents thanking them for everything they had done. They were so grateful for everything.

"I am so freaking excited!" She exclaimed.

"We can't wait to see you become successful adults." Their grandmother said.

They sat down and enjoyed the rest of their meal. Soon, it was just the four girls now that they were in the spare living room. It was the were going to spend the night since their Aunt Holly did not allow the two blondes to have their respected girlfriends spending the night behind closed doors. Each couple cuddled on their queen-sized pull-out sofa beds.

"I can't believe you guys have an apartment in Manhattan." Said Rachel still in shock.

"Well, believe it because I only agreed to go to be in New York with you. The plan is still the same. We're sharing a room," said Quinn as she gestured to herself and Rachel. "and those two are sharing a room." She said gesturing to Brittany and Santana.

"Damn right," Santana confirmed her hands pulling Brittany, who was her big spoon, closer.

"It's going to be so much fun." Rachel said excitedly. "Just imagine all the fun times we'll have together watching music.."

"Wait. Hold up. What was that? Hobbit, there is no way we're gonna watch musicals. Uh-uh, no way in hell. I will go all Lima Heights before that happens." She protested with her faux ghetto accent. She had developed it when so that people would believe her story of being raised in Lima Heights, a neighborhood known for not being the safest. Something she wanted so people could fear her. 

Brittany kissed her ear tenderly before whispering, "Be nice, Babe."

"Whipped." Quinn teased upon hearing this. 

Santana just rolled her eyes.

"We've got to sleep. We have an early morning tomorrow. We need to be out of here by eight in the morning. We still have a few things to put into the U-haul so sleep."

"I think that is for the best, Brittany. Let's go to sleep, Quinnie."

"Did the hobbit just call you Quinnie?" She questioned before chuckling. "Lame."

"I think it's cute," Brittany commented.

"Shut up you two." Muttered the short-haired blonde.

Santana bit her lip and nodded. Brittany kissed her shoulder, then her jawline, and when Santana turned to face her, her lips.

"I love you" she muttered onto her lips.

"I love you too, babe" she whispered back with a smile.

* * *

The next morning, Rachel was the first to wake up. She Quinn was cuddled into her neck with one arm draped around her waist. She smiled lazily. She'd never felt this way before. She was about to go off to New York City too with her girlfriend(her smile widened, being able to call the blonde her girlfriend still made the butterflies go crazy in her stomach), she was enrolled at NYADA, and her girlfriend's progress was amazing. She'd always believed Quinn would be okay. She believed it with all her heart. Though she still had some inner issues to deal with, she was glad the blonde was opening up to her with each passing day.

She felt Quinn stirred in her sleep. Rachel noticed how her breathing pattern changed. "Good morning" she whispered.

"Good morning" she whispered back with a smile. "What time is it?" She asked groggily.

"6 o'clock," she said as she pecked gave Quinn an Eskimo kiss. "Should we wake the other two?"

Quinn placed a sweet kiss onto Rachel's lips before replying, "No. Santana will get up shortly. She can't sleep past 6:15 thanks to Cheerios practice the past 4 years."

"That's good," Rachel said.

They lay in silence for the remainder of the time until Santana had woken up. Just as Quinn had said, the Latina was up a minute before 6:15 a.m. Brittany followed a few minutes later.

They got up, folded the covers, and stored the beds away before they cleaned up the living room to make it as clean as it was before they spent the night there. Aunt Holly and Grandma Pierce were making them breakfast to go as Grandpa Pierce inspected the U-Haul and Brittany's car. He wanted to make sure the cars had all the necessary equipment to replace a tire if need be.

The girls worked as a team to load the remaining items into the U-Haul truck and their luggage into Brittany's new car. Her grandfather had gotten her a new and much safer SUV. Her Volkswagen had to remain home as Brittany didńt want to sell it.

Now that everything was packed, they were all in the driveway hugging each other. Grandma Pierce, Rachel's two dads, and Santana's mother were crying while Aunt Holly, Grandpa Pierce, and Santana's father put on a brave face. Their little girls were grown women and seeing them go was hard but a necessary step.

They hugged each other promising to contact them every few hours to make sure they got there safe. They promised to visit on their first break from school and every holiday before making their way onto the road. Brittany and Santana lead the way in Brittany's car. Quinn drove the U-Haul with Rachel at the passenger seat.

Santana's hand met Brittany's at the center console where it rested. Her figures finding shelter between long slender fingers of her blonde lover. She stared at her lovingly as the blonde concentrated on driving. Brittany smiled knowing Santana was watching her. Santana did that all the time. She had asked about it once when they first started dating and Santana had confessed that she stared not only because she was beautiful but also because part of her couldn't believe Brittany loved her back. She still couldn't believe that her innocent Brittany was also the sexy, confident stripper Toxic even though Brittany still gave her many, many private performances.

Santana couldn't believe how lucky she was. "You and I…" She said biting her lower lip

"Would make would make the world jealous." She said looking the brunette now that they reached a stop thanks to traffic.

"Have I told you How much I love you?" Santana questioned.

"Tell me again."

"I love you more than I've ever loved anyone."

"I love you, San."

"I'm serious. I never told you this but you make me feel like I'm the luckiest girl in the whole world. Like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

Brittany bought up Santana's hand to her mouth and kissed it. Her eyes never leaving the road.

"That's because you are, Santana. This is where you're supposed to be. Right here, next to me. Always."

"Always." Santana concurred.

There was no arguing Brittany's logic. She was and has always been a genius. That was just a fact. The god honest truth.

In the car behind them, Quinn smiled as Rachel belted out to another song from yet another musical. She'd be annoyed if it were anyone else but this is Rachel. The brunette stole her heart with the first solo she heard her sing. She remembers how she had asked her if it was only for Finn since she had dedicated it to him but Rachel's eyes were on hers the whole time.

"I lied at that time." Rachel said. Her sudden statement-making Quinn momentarily takes her eyes off the road.

"What?" She asked, a look of confusion clear and evident on her face.

"I didn't sing that song to Finn." The brunette confessed.

Quinn will never understand Rachel's ability to know what she was thinking about but she thinks it's the best thing in the world. Quinn has gotten better at expressing herself but she's thankful for Rachel being able to know what she's thinking. It made the relationship function more smoothly.

"I know Finn always told you that you'd be a star. I heard him tell you a few times. It wasn't until I heard you singing that I knew how wrong he was."

Rachel's eyes furrowed unsure of where Quinn was going with this. Didn't say anything, Quinn required a lot of patience and Rachel had plenty of that and more when it came to her.

"You aren't going to be a star, you already are a star."

"Quinnie," she said in the softest tone possible. Rachel couldn't believe how special Quinn was.

"I mean it. You aren't famous yet but I want you to know that I am and will always be your biggest fan. I'm going to be there every step of the way. I'll be sitting in the front row at all your shows and anxiously wait to read all the reviews about you. I'll be cheering the loudest when you win your first Tony. I know you're going to shine brighter than you're shinning right now."

Rachel had tears streaming down her face.

"You're my shining star. You make me want to be better. I can't thank you enough for that. I only hope that you let me try to thank you for everything with every passing day."

Rachel nodded but shook her head at her silliness because Quinn can't see her. She bent over and gave Quinn a long peck on the cheek. If only they weren't driving.

Quinn broke into a smile at the kiss. It's too soon to say those meaningful three words, but they're well on their way to saying the.

"I adore you, Rach," she said softly.

"I adore you, Quinnie."

The drive to New York was long. They had made several stops on the way. While on the road, Quinn and Rachel were on the phone with Brittany and Santana which made Santana bicker with Rachel. It annoyed Brittany and Santana but they both knew that Santana was really fond of the girl.

In truth, she was. Rachel was the reason Quinn was smiling so much. Sure, the therapy helped as well as the friendship that was rekindled between her, Santana, and Brittany but Rachel, Rachel could put a smile on her face as soon as hazel eyes landed on the brunette.

Once they arrive in New York, they couldn't shut up about the city. The traffic was the last thing they cared about. If anything it allowed them to look at the endless skyscrapers.

It takes them a while but when they do get to their new apartment, they are blown away.

The apartment was huge. Bigger than what most people can afford in New York.

'We're going to have to thank my grandparents." Brittany says as she walks in.

"We live here?" Santana asked in disbelief looking at the place.

"Yup"

"Holy shit," Rachel mutters to everyone surprise.

They chuckle as they don't recall Rachel every saying cure word in their lives.

* * *

They all barely have any energy to move as they each place the last boxes they have on the floor. The entire place is full of boxes. The only rooms set up is the living room as they had it up as they got down the bigger items.

Brittany hands everyone a water bottle and drops onto the couch with her girlfriend, sister, and best friend.

As they talk about their new home and the start of a new chapter, Brittany is deep in thought.

This year has been hard. One of the most difficult. She can deny though that this has also been a year that has bough her happiness and closure. She and Quinn have so many wounds that need to heal but she's excited for what is in store for them.

This city offered them a fresh start.

* * *

Brittany and Santana cuddle in their bed as they talked about their plans. There is no pressure for them. They know nothing is set in stone. They don't know what is going to happen between them in the future but one this is certain.

"You and I," Brittany says making Santana smile at the familiar words. "Will make the whole world jealous."


	13. Epilogue

Brittany exits Dr.'s office and her eyes immediately look for her fiancée. She smiles as the brunette stands up to free her. Brittany's smile grows as she is welcome her into a tight hug. This woman and these arms have comforted her through her worst days. She would have gotten here one way or another but she didn't have to do it alone. This girl has been with her when her treatment started.

This is a day they've been waiting for. For the past 4 years, she has been attending therapy to help heal with the trauma associated with her father's death and the maltreatment she had suffered at the hands of her stepmother.

Santana wasn't the only one there for her. It helped that her stepsister Quinn and her were both getting helped. If either of them needed to talk about what happened, they did. Support groups existed but it helped so much more than they had each other.

Santana was just so amazing. She was there at every appointment. Chose to open her own practice with a few friends instead of a hospital who wanted to hire here just so she would have time dedicated to Brittany and their relationship

When pulling away, Santana is the first to speak up. "Ready to go to Quinn's book signing?"

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

Quinn kept pacing rapidly in the library. Got the past four years, she had worked hard to write this book. It was Dr. Motta that had advised her to keep a journal about her thoughts. When she moved to New York, it was difficult for her to open up to her new doctor at first. The journal helped her until she was able to open up about her experience and what she was feeling during that time period but after opening up, she fell in the idea of being able to write it all out. Rachel never pried or opened it herself but would give her the space she needed whenever she had it. The idea to turn it into a book came from that.

Writing the book became something important to her. That and being an activist for mental health. With the interviews she had and a movie deal Lifetime had given her, she helped fund the foundation she formed. She'd spoken at many events such as political rallies, schools, and workshops to try and remove the stigma associated with mental illness and to get more funding. Her ultimate goal was to help those who could not afford to get the medical treatment they needed and to also help those who were a little worried about having to see a shrink.

This book though, this book was her way of accepting her past and finally accepting who her family is and where she came from. It was, after all, what people wondered about. Her family history was a topic of discussion at the end of every even she spoke at. She understood, people were infatuated with serial killers for some odd reason.

"Quinn, slow down. They'll be here."

"No, I know that it's just-" she sighs. "I am nervous. People are going to know everything thing that Britt and I went through, the crimes my mother committed. The crimes my family committed. There will be no more doubt. It'll be all out in the open. "

Rachel listens to her girlfriend and lets her speak her mind. She knows Quinn. She knows how patient she has to be. When her girlfriend finally does stop moving, Rachel holds her hands. "Do you remember what you told me when I was freaking out about my first broadway show?"

Quinn nods.

"I am going to repeat those words to you because they are the most perfect words I can think of right now. You are a strong and remarkable woman. You can do anything you put your mind to. Fuck what everyone else thinks."

Quinn smiles. "You always know how to calm me down." She says as she releases Rachel's hands and pulls Rachel into a kiss.

* * *

A lot of things changed in the past 4 years but they are a few things that will still always remain the same. One was the way Santana and Brittany felt about each other and the other was the endless playful banter that occurred regularly between Santana and Rachel.

No matter how successful of a broadway start Rachel had become, Santana teased her all the time.

"Get it hobbit!" Santana said cheekily as she and Brittany approached the kissing couple that no longer lived with them.

Brittany rolls her eyes at her fiancee as the couple separates. Rachel looks down shyly and Quinn looks annoyed.

"Some things will never change but that's beside the point. Quinn, there is not one seat empty. How do you feel?"

"Better now that Rachel gave me a pep talk."

Their conversation is interrupted but Quinn's personal assistant letting her know that she should head out to the podium. Brittany smiles at her before she, Santana, and Rachel follow close behind her. They sit on the chairs reserved for them.

* * *

Later that night, the girls are celebrating at one of New York's most expensive restaurants, Le Bernadin.

Not only was Quinn's book well-received, but Rachel was also nominated for a Tony award, and Brittany and Santana were getting married the following day. The engaged couple decided to celebrate all the things with their friends in the leeway of having a bachelorette party. Brittany had no interest in seeing another body other than Santana's and Santana only wanted to see a stripper if Brittany was the one doing the stripping.

"Oh, that can so be arranged," Brittany promised with a smirk.

Later that night, Brittany does gives Santana the performance of a lifetime.

* * *

Quinn is nervous as she messes with the velvet box inside her as Santana gets her hair and makeup done by the hair and makeup girls.

"Q, you've been playing with that thing for like an hour. What are you so nervous about? We both know the hobbit is going to say Yes. She's been in love with you for years."

Quinn knows her best friend is right. The shorter brunette and she have been in love for some time. Had Quinn gotten her boom out sooner, she would have gotten a ring and proposed much sooner.

"I am worried that the timing is off. She's got a new musical coming up and she's super focused on getting the part. I know how serious she gets when she is rehearsing for a part."

"Yes. Let me tell you, I do not miss that aspect of living with you guys."

Quinn smiles. Santana had told her once that she really admired Rachel. She'll let the comment slide. She knows Santana expresses her love for her girlfriend in a weird way. The day she stops making fun of her is the day she'll have something to worry about.

"I don't want to stress her out with wedding planning and rehearsals. What if she wants to wait for a little while more?"

"Coming from me, the girl who proposed to her girlfriend while she was completely focused on opening her dream dance studio, the perfect time will never be here. There will always be there shows she's in. You've had that ring for months now. You saw that ring and knew you were going to get it when you were helping me find a ring for Brittany. That was almost a year ago. You need to propose soon."

"Well, I can't tonight. Your recital is tonight. While you're away on your honeymoon. I'll do it then."

Santana, whose makeup and hair is down now squeals and runs to hug her best friend.

"I am so excited for you."

"Me, too. Now, let's go get you married to my sister."

* * *

It's almost like she had imagined it many times in her head for several years since they were kids. Brittany had never imagined marrying anyone else. She says almost because marrying Santana was a million times better than any of the ways she had imagined it. The brunette looks so beautiful in her white dress as they walked to meet each other in the center.

They had decided to do something different for their wedding. Instead of either of them waiting at the alter, they decided to walk from two sides and meet in the middle where. Santana's father walked her while her grandpa walked.

They both smiled as they held hands while they listened to the judge ordained their wedding.

"and now the vows."

Brittany smiles. "When I was a little girl, I had the best of everything. The best dad, the best house, and the best group of friends. I was a very happy child. Always dancing to my best friend's voice." She smiles wider as Santana rolls her eyes playfully. "One day, I lost it all. I kept dreaming some prince charming would come and take me away and save me like Cinderella. I got made fun of a lot for believing in fairy tales, unicorns, and all the beautiful things I read about in books. So much so that I stopped believing that Prince Charming would come. Love works in mysterious ways. I started to believe in Princess Charming. Santana, you are my princess charming. You are the reason I am happy today. You are the person that saved me from the life I was living. You and all the amazing that you are. You're my piece of heaven. My Magic. My happy ever after. I love you."

"Britt-Britt, since I was a girl, you have always been my favorite person in the whole wide world. I loved to watch you dance. It made me the happiest seeing you dancing to your heart's content. There was a time where I couldn't see you dance anymore. This was also a time where I sat back and let the world be mean to you because I couldn't own up to how I was feeling. Those were some of the darkest days of my life. You taught me so much about love and acceptance. It took me so long to admit it but I am so glad that I did. The day you told me you felt the same was the day all the light returned to my world. You are the light of my life."

"From this day onward, do you choose Santana to be your wife, your best friend, and your only love? To live together, play together and laugh together; To work by her side and dream in her arms; To fill her heart and feed her soul; To always seek out the best in her; Always loving her with all your heart, until the end of your forever?"

"I do." She said with the biggest smile.

"From this day onward, do you choose Brittany to be your wife, your best friend, and your only love? To live together, play together and laugh together; To work by her side and dream in her arms; To fill her heart and feed her soul; To always seek out the best in her; Always loving her with all your heart, until the end of your forever?"

"I do." She heard Santana say.

"I now pronounce you wife and wife. You may now kiss each other."

With this kiss, they are going to be wife and wife. Santana places her hands on Brittany's waist holding her close. Brittany's hands are on her face. They smile and lean in for a sweet and gentle kiss. They pull away and smile at each other.

"I love you." They say to each other at the same time.

* * *

Later that night when Brittany and Santana are having their first dance, Quinn and Rachel are holding hands watching them like everyone else. Rachel rests her head on Quinn's shoulder and places a gentle kiss on her neck.

"I can't wait to be married to you, Quinn," Rachel says in a whisper.

Quinn's heart skips a beat. Every appointment she's had has led to this moment. The moment that she knows that for sure she is nothing like her mother and she never will be. In some strange way, her mother had saved her the best she could.

"I can't wait to be married to you, Rachel." She confesses back.

Tomorrow, she promises herself. Tomorrow she is going to ask this amazing woman to marry her and she knows the answer is going to be a yes.

"I love you, Rachel," she says as an afterthought to her inner monologue.

Rachel lifts her head and looks into hazel eyes. "I love you, Quinn." She says before leaning in and kissing her sweetly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And They Lived Happily Ever After:)
> 
> This was written in one month. I had challenged myself to write a multi-chapter story. Thanks for taking the time to read a modernization of an old fairytale. Thanks for the kudos and comments. There may not be many, but I appreciate every single one of them. 
> 
> I am very new to writing(5 months next week I believe). If there is anything I can improve on, please let me know. Grammar is not my strongest skill but, I am getting better. 
> 
> Again, thank you!


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